Ok, I do believe I wrote something before about having more time to do things becasue it was school holidays. Pause that, as my son would say. PAUSE THAT! I wish I had some spare time to do what I wanted these holidays anyone feel the same? They've kinda come and gone almost. My kiddies are watching ABC 3, the youngest is asleep and I have told the others if they so much as put their hand on my bedroom door, they will be eating porridge for the rest of their lives! I also put my back out these holidays, so it hasn't been the best time for me. I went to a place at Castle Towers yesterday. Its called Acue Point. Its a chinese massage place. My massuse was a kind looking elderly lady who smiled a lot, but had little english. She was good at the massage, but my back was so sore and when she pushed on my sore points I bit my lip and tried so hard not to yelp! I was braver yesterday, but today, I am in pain. I have bruises scattered on my back and I alreadyhad two muscle spasms, that's supposed to be good right? I have always been told to expect pain the next day and I usually do, but I think my back was really out of whack! I am not too suprised really, I bend down to pick up my kids stuff all the time and I use my back alot at work. Anyway, I am feeling a little sorry for myself I suppose and my husband won't be coming home til late as he has been in Melbourne on business. I suppose I just wanted to vent.
I better get to the real point of my post. My sister-in-law showed me this great book last year where you can make up mixes of things that can last in storage for up to 12 weeks and sometimes more. A few caught my eye and I thought I would give them a go. This one in particular I liked because I got a cool book, " I can't believe its Food Storage" by Crystal Godfery and she used the same mix and calls it Magic Mix. My mum tells me this mix has been around for years, but I am only new to it and maybe you might be too. It has may uses, which I will explore in the near future, but I will go through the recipe on how to make it and then a recipe to make your own chocolate pudding or Yogo(for the aussies) type dessert. The basic idea is that this mix is the basic white sauce/ rue you would mix up with butter, flour, and milk. I use white sauce for heaps of things. We like it in our lasagne, tuna bake, and mac cheese, to name but a few. But with this mix, you can make more things. Its great to have on hand, and if you already have it mixed up, it cuts out time for you. You are also making good use of your food storage ingredients and the mix itself stores for up to 12 weeks.
Recipe
2 cups instant skim milk powder (can use full cream if you prefer)
1 cup all purpose flour
250g block of butter ( can use unsalted but I used regular, saves adding salt later)
Side note: The recipe book is american and it used hydronated vegetable shortening. I didn't know what this was so I looked it up and was grossed out. Basically, for us aussies, its Copha, the stuff you use for chocolate crackles. I can't stand the stuff and basically whenever I think about it I remember puking my guts up after parties as a kid until my mum figured out it was the copha in the chocolate crackles. I am not sure why we need Copha, becasue we have butter. I wanted to mention this incase you use this and would prefer to use it, but butter is better, it tastes better! However, if you use Copha, it will last longer and you can store it in the cupboard instead of the fridge. It's up to you, but you know what I use!!!
Method
I used my food processor, but if you have a kitchenMaid, or something similar, its good to use this. Also would work really well in a Thermomixer - wink!
Put flour and milk powder and process on low to combine. Cut in the butter until its mixed through. In my food processor, I had to do it in two batches.
It will look like this:
I have stored my mix in an old baby formula can, it actually looks a little like the formula, which is a bit weird.
The first recipe I made with the mix, was not actually white sauce. I have been looking for snacks to make for my kids for school lunches. A lot of my weekly food budget goes into their school snacks and I want to cut down on it. I have spent a little bit of time in the holidays making and freezing slices for them. One thing my kiddies like is chocolate custard or dairy dessert/yogo. This can be expensive but they love it. I obtained this recipe from here and thought I would give it a go.
Yogo Dairy Dessert
2 cups of white sauce mix
1 cup sugar - would say maybe half this as we found ours pretty sweet
1 vanilla bean - can use 1 tsp extract
1-2 tbs cocoa
2 cups water
Method
Add mix, sugar and cocoa to a saucepan and mix well on medium heat and add water and mix well. Split vanilla pod and scrape seeds into saucepan and add pods as well.
Mix until bubbles appear. Take off heat, take out pods, cover and allow to cool. The mixture will thicken while it cools.
My kids gave it the thumbs up approval. I would say you can make ice blocks or freeze in little tubs for a frozen dessert. My kiddies will get little tubs in their lunch boxes too.
Other suggestions:
Add a banana(or fruit of choice), some ice cream and little extra milk, process to make a yummy milkshake.
Add diced fruit
Omit cocoa powder for a vanilla flavoured dessert
Hope you found this interesting and useful. I will be making something savoury soon. I have also made up a brownie mix and pancake mix, so look forward to these posts too!
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