As we have pretended to travel around the world we have tried out lots of amazing international recipes from Mandazi in Kenya, to Dulce de Leche in Argentina via Pani Popo in Samoa! In this post I’m going to share our favourite recipes with you. Sometimes because I am baking with little children I have to sacrifice authenticity for ease but I always try to keep the culture we are ‘visiting’ close to my heart! I do apologise for any cultural errors and would love to try more recipes with the children as we continue our pretend travels so please do email me any ideas that you have.
Vietnamese Peanut Brittle
This recipe was outstandingly easy! And although it lacked the sesame seeds that the more authentic Vietnamese recipes had, it also lacked the rolling of boiling sugar too, which made it a far better bet with children. If I wasn’t making it for a Vietnam day I would definitely add popcorn with the peanuts, and also I used salted peanuts and so didn’t add extra salt. This was one of the easiest and tastiest recipes I have made.
New Zealand LAMINGTON’S
As we are a family split between New Zealand and the UK this recipe was made with lots of love and some homesickness! It is possible that this is actually an Australian recipe, but as long as they admit that Pavlova is from New Zealand we promise not to quibble! If you want to make your life very easy then you can buy a ready made sponge cake and just cut it up and make the icing to dip it into. This recipe will take you through everything you need to do for a perfect Sunday afternoon treat!
Brazilian Chocolate cake
Penny and Freddie love a chocolate cake and this recipe seemed fun to make and something that they would love to eat during our Brazil day. The big difference in the recipe was using drinking chocolate and hot water which gave it a sort of light malty taste. I really enjoyed learning about the recipe and its rather controversial name, as well as following the recipe itself here. I must admit however that I didn’t like it as much as my usual (Mary Berry) recipe and its not one I would make again. But the whole thing was eaten very quickly so it was a definite win in our house regardless!
French Bread
Freddie looks so little on this picture! And it was all the way last summer that we made these bread rolls on our return visit to pretend France (though I have made them since – notably for our Samoan sweet coconut bread – the recipe for the rest of that is below). Like all bread this takes a little bit of patience – but the reward is great and the kids liked shaping the rolls a lot! They were also really good to eat with sausages for our supper and the house smelt amazing. The very simple (and not really French) recipe is here.
Argentinian Dulce de Leche
This was, very genuinely, the easiest recipe I have ever ever made! Here is what you do: Pour condensed milk into an oven proof dish in a water bath. Bake it for an hour or two until it’s as caramelly as you would like. That’s it – and you have the taste of Argentina ready to eat! We served it with fruit and marshmallows to dip and when we were in pretend Peru we also used it as a cake filling. Enjoy!
Kenyan Mandazi
These Kenyan doughnuts were lovely and spiced. However as I used baking soda rather than yeast they were quite heavy and cakey compared to normal doughnuts and I think that next time I might try for the more complicated yeast based recipe for a better consistency. Nevertheless – they smelled and tasted amazing!
Samoan Pani Popo
Yum! This Samoan recipe was very easy – apart from having to make the bread (which is easy but takes a while). If you could buy ready made bread dough as they clearly can in the USA where the recipe I used is from – it would be the easiest thing to cook in the world. Once you have your bread rolls risen and in an oven proof dish then you mix a can of coconut milk with a cup of sugar, stir until it dissolves and then pour 2/3 of the mixture over the uncooked bread rolls and bake the whole lot in the oven. The smell is incredible and they are absolutely divine hot and and fresh.
