MEATLOAF WITH MUSHROOM SAUCE
1.2 kg regular mince
1 onion
2 tomatoes
25 g Robertsons mince spice
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
50 g chutney
1 large egg
1 tablespoon bread crumbs

Mix well by hand.
Spray your bread pan with spray on cook, preheat oven to 160ºC. Put mince in a mixing bowl, grate onion and fry and add to mixture, skin the tomatoes and also grate into mixture, add mince spice,salt, pepper, chutney, egg and bread crumbs, (mix with hands thoroughly) put your mixture in the pan and flatten like a loaf of bread with hands, put in oven baking with both top and bottom heat, bake for 50 minutes. Check after to see if cooked through, if not leave for another 10 minutes, once cooked leave in oven for juice to soak in for ±10 minutes.
When finished slice and serve with a gravy or in our case we served with a mushroom sauce:
Mushroom sauce:
2 packs of chopped mushrooms and fried with garlic and olive oil. (No specific measurements, just estimated), then add two 250 g fresh cream, half a cup of full cream milk, Aromat to taste (also estimated) and one pack of cream of mushroom soup, wait till thickened and serve.
Served 9 people and leftovers.
Recipe and photo: Rochelle Leigh van Rooyen

TUISGEMAAKTE PIZZA MET GEKOOPTE BASIS
8 medium gevriesde “today” pizza’s
5 pakkies spek
1 groot green pepper, gekap
1 heel groot blik pynappelstukke.
blok Cheddar kaas en blok wit Cheddar kaas of Mozzerella gerasper
Sous:
350 ml All Gold tamatiesous
½ bottel blatjang so 200 ml
4 eetlepels fyngekapte knoffel
2 eetlepels Italiaanse kruie

Meng die bestanddele.
Smeer jou sous so dik soos jy verkies op die bases.
Strooi jou kaas soveel soos jy verkies wit en geel Cheddar of Mozzerella.
Pak jou gesnyde stukkies spek bo-op die kaas dan die pynappelstukke en laaste die groen soetrussie stukkies.
Bak in oond vir 20 minute by 200ºC dan grill so 2 minute van bo af.
Resep en foto: Ronell Muller Boshoff

LOVELY HERTZOG COOKIES
500 ml (280 g) cake flour
10 ml baking powder
1 ml salt
50 ml (40 g) castor sugar
125 g margarine
3 large eggs, separated
50 ml water
200 g smooth apricot jam
300 ml (240 g) sugar
500 ml (160 g) desiccated coconut

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add castor sugar and rub in margarine.
Beat egg yolks and water together and add to dry ingredients, mixing to form a soft dough.
Roll dough out thinly and press out circles. Line the base of greased patty pan tins with dough circles.
Spoon a teaspoonful of apricot jam onto middle of each circle of dough.
Beat egg whites until soft peak stage. Add the 300 ml sugar gradually, while still beating, Add coconut and spoon egg mixture onto apricot jam filling.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 20-25 min. Turn onto a wire rack.
Recipe and photo: Nicolette Papas

CHOCOLATE THUMBPRINTS
60 g dark chocolate
125 g butter, softened
2 cups (400 g) brown sugar
2 egg
1/3 cup (80 ml) strong black coffee
2½ cups (350 g) cake flour
2 tbsp (30 ml) cacao powder
2 tsp (10 ml) baking powder
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
icing for coating

Preheat oven at 180ºC. Grease and line a baking tray with baking paper or a silicone baking mat.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Let cool slightly.
In die bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until pale in colour. Add the eggs one at a rime, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Add the coffee and stir through. Sift the cake flour cocoa powder baking powder into the butter mixture. Lastly mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla essence.
Roll the mixture into small balls. If you find the batter too soft to form balls, add 1 tbsp (12 ml) flour at a time until it is easier to work with. Dip into the icing sugar, making sure each ball is well coated, and place on the prepared baking tray. Leave enough space between the cookies as they do spread out during baking. Flatten the cookies slightly, making small indent in the center with your thumb.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool slightly on the baking tray and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Note: You can place a piece of chocolate in each indentation.
Recipe and photo: Nicolette Papas

THE BEST EVER GINGER MOLASSES COOKIE
1 ¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
½ cup molasses
4 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or powdered ginger
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup white sugar for rolling

Add the butter to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter on medium high speed until it is soft and creamy and the colour begins to turn pale (use a hand mixer if you wish).
Add the sugar and beat on medium high speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times.
Beat in the eggs on medium high speed one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition.
Beat in the molasses and scrape down the bowl to ensure everything is evenly combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, grated ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Whisk these ingredients together to they’re combined and dump the mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer with the butter mixture.
Combine the butter mixture and the dry ingredients on low speed just until no streaks of flour remain. You’ll have to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times to make sure everything is incorporated.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for one hour.
After one hour has passed, preheat your oven to 180ºC.
Remove the dough from the fridge and shape it into about 36 balls with your hands, rolling each ball of dough in the white sugar and placing it on a baking sheet prepared with some parchment paper. Remember to space the cookies out appropriately…this recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies so you’ll likely need to bake 3 or more sheets of cookies.
Bake each sheet of cookies for 10-11 minutes at 180ºC.
When you remove the baking sheet from the oven, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until they’ve cooled almost completely. This will help them achieve that soft and chewy texture as they continue to bake on the inside even after they’ve been removed from the oven.
Recipe and photo: Nicolette Papas

BRAISED LIVER WITH MUSHROOMS AND PEPPER
oil to cover base of frying pan
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
250 g mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 baby marrows, sliced
600 g lamb or beef livers, cleaned and cut in small pieces
extra cake flour for dusting
5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt
5 ml (1 teaspoon) cayenne pepper
5 ml (1 teaspoon) chilli flakes
5 ml (1 teaspoon) paprika
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons cake flour
300 ml water
small bunch of parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a low to medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic and fry gently until the onions are a golden colour.
Add the green pepper and fry until softened.
Add the mushrooms and baby marrow and cook a further 5 minutes until all vegetables are nice and soft. Set aside.
Dust the liver with cake flour and season with salt, cayenne pepper, chilli flakes, paprika and coarse black pepper mix well to incorporate. Fry for 2-3 minutes in hot oil in a non stick pan.
Mix the soy sauce, sugar, salt, flour and the lemon juice into 300 ml water.
Combine liver, vegetables and sauce, simmer gently for 10 minutes.Add the chopped parsley and cook for a further 5 minutes or until done.
Photo and recipe: Elize de Kock.

HOW TO ADJUST YOUR BAKING IN HUMID CONDITIONS
If it’s humit you can reduce the amount of liquid in your recipe slightly. Try reducing it by about 1/8th to 1/4. There is some trail and error in this process. If you would normally put in one half a cup of liquid, reduce it to as little as one quarter the amount.
If after mixing your dough looks too dry it’s okay to add a little more liquid.
This works on batter as well. However, when you find that the weather is dry you can do the opposite. Add more liquid to the recipe.
Do this in the same measurements as above. More often than not this will be enough to overcome the humidity affect. Check to see if the item is done at the earliest time required. Then continue this every few minutes until your goodies is done just right!
High humidity can affect the amount of water required in a recipe.
Reduce the amount of liquid in your bread recipe by 1/4 cup for multi-loaf batches or by 2 tbsp. in a single-loaf batch.
Mix the dough as usual in your bowl, bread machine or stand mixer.
Add more liquid as needed, until the correct consistency has been reached.
Cut back on the amount of yeast used in your recipe to compensate for too-rapid yeast growth. A standard package of yeast is 2-1/4 tsp., but on hot and humid days, a batch of dough may require as little as 1-1/2 tsp.
The smaller amount of yeast will still leaven the bread but without generating fermented flavors and odors.
Add salt to your bread recipe.
Salt inhibits the growth of yeast; as little as 20 percent extra in a bread dough will inhibit over-rising and fermentation.
Reduce the sugar in a recipe to slow yeast growth.
Unless the recipe is for a sweet dough, there is probably enough natural sugar in the flour for the yeast to do its work.
The sugar may be omitted from regular sandwich loaves during hot and humid weather.
Substitute bread flour if your recipe calls for all-purpose flour or does not specify. Bread flour is higher in gluten and absorbs slightly more liquid than all-purpose flour.
Use cold liquids rather than warm, especially if heat is a factor in combination with the humidity.
This will slow the growth of the yeast and help inhibit over-rising.
Tip
You may find it necessary to combine two or more of these techniques if you live in an area where high humidity and heat are common.
Posted by Amanda Conradie

BIERBROOD
3.5 koppies bruismeel
3 eetlepel suiker
1 botteltjie bier of soveel nodig
1 koppie kaas
1 eetlepel roosmaryn, fyngekap

Meng die droë bestanddele in ‘n mengbak en maak aan met die bier tot die deeg die regte tekstuur het. Plaas in ‘n gesmeerde broodpannetjie.
Bak vir ‘n uur of tot goudbruin teen 180ºC. Dit flop glad nie en is heerlik.
Foto: Lettie van der Merwe – Ek het die resep probeer, maar nie ‘n broodjie gebak nie maar muffins, aangesien ek ‘n paar wil vries. Ek is aangenaam verras en sal dit beslis weer maak, dis regtig baie lekker. Julle kan maar probeer.
Resep: Mariaan Ferreira

BANTING MILK TART
200 g unsweetened gluten free biscuits
50 g unsweetened butter
1.2 liter milk
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
100 g cornflour (almond flour can be used as a substitute)
100 g xylitol
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 23 cm pie dish.
Crush the gluten free biscuits to a fine crumb.
Add 50 g melted butter and mix together.
Press evenly into the pie dish.
Place in fridge to cool while you prepare filling.
Place the milk, cinnamon and 50 g butter in a saucepan.
Bring to boil.
Remove saucepan from heat.
In a separate bowl place the eggs, cornflour, xylitol and vanilla.
Whisk well until no lumps remain.
Mix a little warm milk mixture into the egg mixture, beating well.
Pour this into the rest of the milk mixture.
Return to the heat and bring back to the boil while whisking.
Continue until the filling has thickened.
Pour into the prepared biscuit base.
Leave to cool.
Refrigerate until set and ready to serve.
Sprinkle cinnamon over the milk tart just before serving.
Note: I would double the crumb mixture next time I make it.
Also the gluten free biscuit base I used had a lovely mild cinnamon flavor to it so it was seriously yummy.
Recipe and photo: Diana Faith Du Plessis-Swart

EASY BANANA BREAD
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
¼ cup melted butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Mix everything together and bake at 180ºC for one hour.
Recipe and foto: Lorraine Lolla Mouton‎