Weekend Baking: Raisin bread & Choc chip bannocks

We ran out of bread yesterday, so instead of heading to the supermarket I whipped out my breadmaker and made a loaf of wholemeal bread (admittedly it was a packet mix - oh the shame!)..

Fresh out of the breadmaker!

But inspired by the aroma and joy of eating freshly baked bread, this morning I decided to make some raisin bread. I used the recipe from my breadmaker's recipe book, which I have made before. Sadly my pantry is in desperate need of re-stocking, so instead of putting in a combination of raisins, currants and sultanas I had to settle for just raisins. 

Clearly, it was a success as my husband dived right into it while it was still toasty warm. (I snapped a pic while he was buttering up - but I had to promise not to get him in the photo!)

I suggested to the kids (while the breadmaker was working its magic) that we should make some bannocks, but now that I was out of raisins, currants and sultanas (tomorrow must be grocery re-stock day!) AND maple syrup I had to improvise. What could I put in them instead of dried fruit that would be delightful without maple syrup? Chocolate chips, naturally! I also substituted vanilla extract for the cinnamon because I thought it would compliment the chocolate.

Look at that oaty, chocolatey goodness!

This isn't the best photo, but I didn't get a chance to take any more -
the kids ate them as fast as I could cook them!

Chocolate chip bannocks, huge success. The choc chips were all warm and melty in your mouth, and they were perfect on their own - no maple syrup, no butter, nothing else required! Bean declared them the 'best ever', which is high praise from my picky eater! I guess nothing can beat chocolate.

Weekend Baking: Pecan Pie

Every week I look forward to reading Lisa & Sarah's "Weekend Baking" posts on their blog A Spoonful of Sugar. Most of the time my baking is done through the week, so I've never felt that I qualified to participate in their weekend baking party... but yesterday (Sunday) I made Pecan Pie!

Last Christmas I made some Caramel Pecan Tarts from a recipe in Better Homes & Gardens' Christmas booklet. They were lovely, but a bit more effort (and fattening - white chocolate in the pastry!) than I was planning to put in.. so I hunted for the recipe that one of my aunts passed on to me recently and made that instead. I used a pre-made sweet flan/pie shell to save time (I was also making muesli bars and hot chocolate for the kids). 

There was slightly more filling than the pie shell could handle, so I cut some (also frozen - how lazy am I?) shortcrust pastry to fit a couple of smaller tartlet molds. I tried to be thrifty and not waste pastry by putting lids on the tartlets. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!! Pecan pies are clearly open topped for a good reason.. they rise so much during baking (which sinks back down when cooling) that if you put a lid on them they just bubble over. And make a mess everywhere. Next time I will just use the extra pastry to make some jam tarts for the kids instead!

Meanwhile, the pecan pie was absolutely smashing topped with a scoop of caramel toffee crunch icecream. And perfectly timed as a dessert for an impromptu BBQ dinner with friends.