This recipe was on the Carnation Sweetened Condensed Milk tin label. I must admit I’ve never made it because I have a strong preference for baked cheesecakes over this no bake type. I think it’s because way, way back the first piece of cheesecake I had was in a little cafe in Toorak and coffee when ‘European’ baked cheesecake was very new and trendy in Melbourne.
I guess these could be renamed Melting Moments with Passionfruit Filling, but cutting them into heart shapes and naming them ‘Hearts of Passion’ is definitely more colourful. Obviously you can make them any shape you want and while the recipe uses I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, you can use butter as a substitute if you want to.
The unusual thing about this apple cake is that instead of using stewed apples for the filling, the apples are grated and simply layered on top of the cake mixture. The picture seems to suggest having it with tea or coffee, but I think it would work just as well as a yummy dessert.
As far as I can work out Mum must have found this recipe in an English magazine on one of her trips to the UK. It doesn’t look very appetizing, but I suspect if you love rhubarb it would taste really good. It certainly would be a good way to use up rhubarb if like my father you grow a good crop each year. As it’s English you’ll need to covert the fresh rhubarb to 1.25kg, the water to 150ml and the caster sugar to 250g.
How Christmas puddings have changed over the years. Mum always made her pudding, in a ceramic bowl at least two months before Christmas, soaking the fruit and using suet. Yesterday I made mine, barely three weeks before and to make it gluten free used gluten free breadcrumbs. But there’s also nothing nicer, on a hot Australian Christmas Day than a ice cream pudding. The added bonus is that it’s gluten free and if as suggested in this recipe you use chocolate ice cream it even looks like the old traditional version.
Didn’t get around to making a plum pudding yet? Why don’t you try this ice cream one. No need to make it months in advance, the night before will be fine. All you have to do is cut up the fruit, add in the spices and gelatine, stir through the ice cream and put it back in the freezer till you need it. Merry Christmas…..
I haven’t actually made these meatballs, but I do make a version with pork mince, chicken noodle soup and a dash of soy sauce that work really well. I make them for picnic lunches on driving holidays and to take to the F1 motor racing at Albert Park. Mine don’t have the cream cheese, but I think that’s a great idea and I’ll add it into the next batch I make.
Although Christmas is still quite a few weeks away shops have put up their decorations, so I guess it’s time to start to work on Christmas menus. I found this old cutting in Mum’s collection and thought that the Guinness, mustard, ginger and cardamom basting combo sounded interesting and I thought that the carving instructions were useful bonus.
Next time you’re thinking of cooking up some chicken wings for a large gathering, you might like to try this version. The onion, apricot nectar, French onion soup and soy sauce make a great sticky sauce for them.
It’s easy to think that International dishes are something that are new to our food scene, but that’s not the case. When I look back at my old 1970s cookbooks there’s a whole section on International food and Mum was cautiously trying out different recipes before that. This Mexican Tamale Pie recipe was published by the New Idea in 1980 and is just as good today as it was then.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 