Select two or three items from the above menus or mix and match the menus and offer both tea and coffee.

This crispy olive oil pastry offers a cholesterol free alternative to regular pastry.

NO-CHOLESTEROL OLIVE OIL SHORT-CRUST PASTRY

1½ cups (180 g) cake flour
2 pinches (2 ml) salt
6 T (90 ml) olive oil
4 T (60 ml) cold water
1½ T (22.5 ml) lemon juice or vinegar

Sift together flour and salt. Whisk together oil, water and lemon juice, and add to dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until all dry ingredients are moistened, but still crumbly. Press mixture together cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Knead until smooth and roll out very thinly. Cut pastry rounds with a biscuit cutter (6 cm, in diameter) to fill 3 mini muffin pans. Press pastry circles into pans to fit snugly. Prick bottoms lightly with the prongs of a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

FILLING

½ cup (125ml) spring onions, finely sliced with green tops
1 T (15 ml) olive oil
1 x 200 ml Ina Paarman's Ready to Serve Fat Reduced Cheese Sauce
2 wheels of feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg
1 t (5 ml) Ina Paarman's Green Onion Seasoning

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Sauté the spring onions lightly in the olive oil. Remove from heat. Add the cheese sauce and feta cheese. Beat the egg lightly and add to the mixture together with Green Onion seasoning. Spoon the mixture into the pre-baked pastry shells and bake for 20-25 minutes until puffy and nicely browned. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with watercress.

 VARIATION
Replace the feta with ¾ cup grated pecorino cheese.

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Petit Fours

We have flavoured these dainty cakes with rose water. Topped with white chocolate ganache and decorated with tiny flowers, they look stunning! Just enough for a mouth-full.

3 extra large eggs
½ cup (125 ml) oil
¾ cup (180 ml) milk
2 T (30 ml) rosewater
1 x 600 g Ina Paarman's Vanilla Cake Mix

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and adjust oven rack to middle position. Butter and line the base of a large rectangular pan with baking paper. I used my oven pan 36cm x 27cm.

Beat eggs and oil for 2 minutes on high speed until well blended. Add milk and rose water and beat for 1 minute on high speed. Add contents of pack and beat until combined on slow speed. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for about 30-35 minutes.

Once it has cooled, turn the cake out on a cooling rack - underside up. When it is completely cool cut off the crusts around the sides and cut the cake up into 3cm x 3cm squares. Spoon a little ganache over each square and place a tiny flower on top.

WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

100 g white cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
¼ cup (60 ml) fresh cream
2 T (30 ml) butter
½ t (2.5 ml) vanilla essence
½ cup (125 ml) icing sugar
tiny edible flowers to garnish e.g. lavender tips, violas, etc.

For the ganache, heat the chocolate, cream and butter in the microwave on medium for 2-3 minutes, or in a bowl over boiling water, until the chocolate has melted. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. Sift in the icing sugar and beat well. If the mixture is still warm, place it in the fridge to cool until it is the right consistency to spoon over the tops of the little cakes. Serve in small white paper cups.

WATCH POINT
Because the sides of the little cakes are not iced they will tend to dry out. Keep them in air tight containers until serving time.

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Best Lemon Meringue Pie

This is one our most requested recipes. It is absolutely divine. Don't be put off by the long method description, I am simply giving you all the tips to avoid the usual pitfalls of:

• A raw tasting filling
• Meringue slipping off the filling and pulling away from the sides
• Meringue weeping sugary tears etc.

MERINGUE LAYER
4 egg whites
2 t (10 ml) lemon juice
¼ cup (60 ml) castor sugar
¼ cup (60 ml) icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Use a non-stick spray (this is one of the very few times that I use it) to spray the inside of a 22cm pie dish. Crush the biscuits or whiz them in a food processor until broken. Add the melted butter and blend very briefly until just mixed through.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared dish and spread out. Work the crumbs up the sides of the dish and flatten with the back of a tablespoon. Put in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to firm while you prepare the filling.

Beat the condensed milk (use the boiling water to get every bit out of the tins), lemon rind, lemon juice, egg yolks and salt together until thoroughly mixed.

Remove the crust from the freezer and pour the filling gently over the back of a spoon so as not to disturb the crumbs of the pie crust.

Bake the pie (without the meringue for 20 minutes). To make the meringue beat the egg whites in a spotless glass or stainless steel bowl until just beginning to foam. Add the lemon juice and beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Add the castor sugar, a spoonful at a time, while beating hard. Sift the icing sugar over in 3 batches and also beat it in hard.

The meringue mixture must now be stiff and shiny and be able to hold its shape. Remove the pie from the oven - sift the 2 t of cornflour over the filling (this acts as glue to hold the filling and the meringue together). Spoon the meringue over the hot filling in great big blobs - working right up and over the edge of the crust. Fluff the meringue up with a spatula and return the pie to the oven. Bake for another 25 minutes. Open the oven door 1cm, switch off the oven and leave the pie in the oven to cool down.

When the pie is cool transfer it to the fridge to store - this will prevent 'tears' forming on the meringue - the air in the fridge is much drier than the regular atmosphere outside.

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Strawberry Crunchies

125 g real butter (room temperature)
2 T (30 ml) full cream milk
1 x 350 g Ina Paarman's Honey Crunchies
2/3 cup (166 ml) strawberry jam

TOPPING

3 T (45 g) butter
5 T (75 ml) flour
½ cup (50 g) pecan nuts, chopped

GARNISH

½ cup (125 ml) cream, whipped
1 small punnet of strawberries cut into slices with green tops

Preheat the oven to 160ºC and adjust oven rack to middle position. Butter a 34 cm x 24 cm pan generously and line it with non-stick baking paper just to make absolutely sure that the mixture does not stick to the pan. Place the butter and milk in the micro-safe mixing bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute until melted.

Add the contents of pack to the melted butter mixture and stir with a spatula until all the dry ingredients are well coated. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan. Level and flatten it into the pan with your hand. The mixture will have a "plastered down" look. Spread the strawberry jam over the crunchie mixture.

To make the topping mixture, rub the butter into the flour to form coarse crumbs. Add the nuts and toss together with your fingers. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the strawberry jam layer. Bake for 35 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. Allow to cool to lukewarm and cut into 3 cm x 3cm blocks using the width of a ruler as a guide. Leave to cool down in the pan. Lift out gently and store between sheets of greaseproof paper in an airtight container.

GARNISH
Dot the cooled strawberry squares with a small teaspoon of whipped cream and place a slice of fresh strawberry on each one.

 VARIATION
Use apricot jam in place of strawberry jam.

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Cappuccino Biscotti

A double shot in the arm for the coffee addicts!

4 T (45 g) real butter
2 extra large eggs
1 x 530 g packet of Ina Paarman's Biscotti Mix with Almonds
2 T (30 ml) instant coffee granules
1 T (15 ml) milk or cream

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and adjust oven rack to middle position. Cream the butter until soft and then add the eggs, one at a time, while beating on high speed. Add contents of pack, instant coffee granules and milk. Fold through with a spatula and then use your hands to knead the mixture until it sticks together and forms a dough ball.

Divide the dough into two. On a floured board roll each half into a long sausage shape, 35 cm long and 3cm thick. Place them 6cm apart on a baking tray. Pat each roll lightly to flatten the top a little. Bake for 18 minutes. The top of the biscotti rolls will crack. Remove from the oven when golden, not browned. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool for 15 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 140ºC. Place one roll at a time on a cutting board and slice on the diagonal into 1cm thick slices. Use a serrated bread knife or an electric carving knife. Lay the slices on a metal cooling rack placed over the baking tray on which the biscotti were baked initially.

Bake the biscotti for a second time until crisp, about 8 minutes. Store in an airtight container once completely cool.

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Date and Banana Muffins

Delicious served with real butter! The muffins can be mixed the day before and baked on the day if it is more convenient. You can also make mini-muffins.

2 extra large eggs
½ cup (125 ml) canola or sunflower oil
1 cup (250 ml) plain yoghurt
1 cup (250 ml) milk
1 x 700 g Ina Paarman's Muffin Mix with Raisins and Bran
3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
125 g pitted dates cut into very small pieces

Preheat oven to 180ºC and adjust oven rack to middle position.

Remove the raisin-bag from the foil packet and pour boiling water over the raisins to plump them up. Drain immediately and set aside to swell.

Butter two muffin pans. Beat eggs and oil for 2 minutes on high speed until well blended. Add yoghurt and milk and beat for 1 minute on high speed. Add contents of pack, drained plumped raisins, mashed bananas and dates. Stir by hand with a spatula ± 40 times until uniformly blended. (Do not beat). Spoon one heaped tablespoon of mixture into muffin pans. Fill the hollows only about 2/3 full. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until nicely risen and browned.

 VARIATION
Add ½ cup chopped pecan nuts in place of dates.

 COOK'S TIP
Fresh dates (pipped first) are great to use when in season.

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