When life is a little rough, macadamia nuts and pineapple come to the rescues…

I had a rough week and I know my office gang was not having a lot of fun either. One of the most frustrating parts of the working for a corporation was the fact that many times my hands were tied. I couldn’t do much to make the change necessary to make working life better.  I work with a great group of people. I wish I could do something for them. My way of thanking the gang is to bake for them and they love to eat! 

When I got home from Yoga last night, I was still dwelling over all the issues at the office. I decided to make a cake, something simple, something from the Islands. How about some Macadamia nuts and pineapple? Can you smell the ocean? Hear the wave? See the rainbow? Okay, okay I am going a little overboard. 

This is a very simple Hawaiian poi cake recipe. Don’t worry there is no poi in the cake. Pineapple poi is the crushed pineapple, like poi!!!

If you don’t have mac-nut readily available, walnut is a great substitute for this.

Hawaiian macadamia nut pineapple poi cake with honey cream cheese frosting

Cake:

2 cups sugar

1 can 20oz-crushed pineapple in natural juice

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped macadamia nut or walnut

Honey cream cheese frosting:

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

¼ cup butter, softened

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Heat oven to 350, if you are using a non-stick (dark pan). Lower temperature to 325.

Spray a 9x13 oblong pan with baking spread, or grease and flour.

In a large bowl. Mix sugar with a whole can of crush pineapple, juice and all.

Add 2 eggs, combine.

Fold in flour and baking soda.

Finally fold in the nuts.

Pour the batter in the prepared pan.

Bake for 45-55 mins till the toothpick came out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.

Cook for 5 -10 mins. You can leave a cake in the pan and cool completely. 

Or invert the cake onto a cooling rake. Let the cake cool completely.

As with the frosting

Combine cream cheese, butter and honey in a medium bowl.

Add 1 tsp vanilla

Beat at med high speed till fluffy and light.

To frost the cake:

If you leave the cake in the pan, simply frost the cake!

I re-inverted the cake onto a serving platter (right side up).

Drop frosting over the cake,

Happy frosting!

 Store in the fridge. 12 big serving, 16 little one!

Enjoy!

Aloha

Memories of youth... Old English quick scones

We are going to have an “office warming” for another department at work. I was asked to make something for the occasion. I thought of making scone. Whenever I bake scones I thought of my Aunt Kathy. My aunt was married to an Englishman. I used to spend time at their place after school when I was teenager. We would have tea in the afternoon and scones were often served.

Unlike American scones, these are very delicate and tender. My version here is a very simple home style. This is an old recipe and the measurement is in ounces. We used to make these by hand. I adapted the recipe to using a food processor. You can gather the dough, roll it into 1/2” thick and cut it into 1” rounds. When we made these for tea at home, we would keep it simple by dropping the dough by a teaspoon on a baking sheet. It will spread out a little more. Since the dough is not “worked”, it is tender and also melt in your mouth.

You can serve this with traditional clotted cream and jam. I prefer to have it plain.

Home style quick Scones

12 oz self-raising flour

4 oz very cold butter

4 oz sugar

1/8 – 1/3 cup of milk or buttermilk

2/3 cup dried currents

Optional: 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp of milk for glaze.

 Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Prepare food processor with the process blade: Place 12 oz of flours in the work bowl

Cut the butter into 8 pieces and drop into the bowl with the flour

Cover. Put the processor in “dough” mold. Purse till the butter is worked into the flour and resemble breadcrumbs (about 3 mins)

Blend in sugar.

While the processor is on, pour in 1/8 cup of milk through the top feed tube. Check the dough, the amount of liquid will depend on the humidity and the temperture of your surrounding. I am in a dry climate and it is Fall here, I have to use about ¼ cup of milk. I would use all 1/3 cup in the winter, especially when the heat is on.

It's ready when the dough starts to stick together

Transfer the dough to large bowl, add the currents and mix thoroughly.

As this point, you can choose

1-  to use 2 teaspoon and gather into a round 

and drop onto a baking sheet.

2-  to gather the dough, transfer to floured working surface. Roll out to 1” think and cut into 1” rounds. 

Place 1” apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Brush top of each scone with egg-wash

Bake for 20-22mins till the edges are golden.

Let the scones cool for a few mins, transfer to cool rack

Serve warm with clotted cream and jam

Make 18 scones

Enjoy

Aloha

Simple Breakfast treat for any day

I promised Shane at Trade Joe's to post this recipe last weekend. Things got a little crazy and I didn’t get a chance to do this till now.

 Refrigerator crescent rolls in a tube is one of my favorite “stand by” products. It is simple to work with and can easily transform itself into so many different things. As you know I had to deal with a lot of plum here at home, I was a little disappointment one morning when I realized I was out of stock!!!

I stopped at my neighborhood Trader Joe’s to restock. Shane helped me at check out. When she saw there were 2 crescent rolls, she commented how additive those were! I mentioned to her I was planning to make some breakfast pastry with it since I needed to make a dent in the mountain of plums at home. I rambled on with the recipe. She was so excited. To make things simple, I promised to post the recipe so that she didn't have to write it down. 

This is for you Shane!!! See you around! Enjoy!

Breakfast Cream Cheese Pastry cups 

1 refrigerator crescent rolls

1 3-oz cream cheese, softened.

3-4 Tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten.

8 pieces of fruit, I am using 4 plums, stone removed and cut in quarter

A couple Tbsp brown sugar.  I am using Demerara sugar, I like the courser texture.

 Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Lightly butter 8 out of the 12 cups muffin pan. Since I am using a crescent roll, butter enhances the taste of the roll. I would not recommend using the spray in this recipe.

To make the filling:  Cut up the cream cheese in small pieces and place in a small bowl or a small processor.

Cream the cream cheese

Add 4 Tbsp of sugar. Cream to combine. I am using a little more sugar in here since the plum is a sour. 

If you are using a sweet fruit filling, I would cut back the sugar to 3 Tbsp.

Add the beaten egg, process till combined

Add Vanilla. Process to combine

Open the crescent roll. Unroll on a cutting board. Pinch the perforated line back together to form 4 rectangles.

Cut the pastry into 8 squares

Line the muffin pan with a square. Lightly stretch the pastry if need and press the pasty into each cup with the 4 corners overhang on the edge to form a cup. 

Place 1 Tbsp of the cream cheese custard in each of the muffin pan and finish up by dividing any balance between the 8 cups

Place the plum in each center

Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the fruit.

Bake for 20 mins till the crescent roll cups is golden brown. The filling with will puffy. When a tooth is inserted in center of one of the pastry comes out clean, the filling is cooked.

Remove from oven; let it sit for 5 min. The filling will flatten some.

Loosen up each pastry by running a knife along the edge of each cup.

Remove and let cool on a rack.

Serve warm

8 small pastries

Quick note about the filling in the center:

You can change the fruit filling to anything you like. Some times I would just drop a defrosted bing cherry in each cup  or a small teaspoon of any fruit preserve.

To go with the Fall theme and if you like apple: 

Peel and dice a small apple. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a fry pan. 

Cook the apple for a couple min. 

Sprinkle with juice of ½ lemon. 

Add 2 Tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and ½ tsp nutmeg. 

Toss well and let the filling cook till the apple soften and the liquid thickened. 

Let the filling cool. Divide the filling into 8 portions, drop the filling in the center of each cup, bake as directed above.

Have fun and experiment with different fruit or anything you want!

Enjoy

Aloha!