Pink Lemonade Slice

Lately I've been starting to wonder if this Melbourne winter is ever going to end? Today I had a little afternoon nap, and wondered if maybe I should just hibernate and sleep through until the warm weather is back! I am a wee bit grumpy today after a five am start. When I finished work and got home at three I found that I was exhausted.... but there was still more day left to be had. I just couldn't seem to wrap my head around the idea, that despite the fact I had already worked a full day and been into the city, it was not yet time to cook dinner, pour a huge glass of wine and have a relax!! I contemplated pouring a huge glass of wine anyway, but 3pm felt a little early........I went for a nap instead.

The moral of the story is.......I had the grumps today. Work placement always puts me a little on edge. You have to get up before the sun, and bake recipes you have never made before....and hope hope hope you don't make a mistake. It can be a tiny bit Extremely  scary. Today when I was working with another young pastry chef who was waiting for instructions on what to do next, the executive chef walk into the kitchen, looked down at her and said "DONT PUT YOUR HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS!!! AT LEAST TRY TO LOOK A LITTLE BIT INTERESTED." Goodness I felt bad for her. I wanted to turn to her and offer a word of comfort or say something like "Don't mind him, he's a jerk," but honestly I was too scared to incase he heard me.

So my plan of action is this:

1. Never ever ever stand in that kitchen with my hands in my pockets!
2. Drink a huge bowl full of tea.
3. Go and pick up my box of organic vegetables that are being delivered today! (We are very excited!)
4. Strop having the grumps!
5. And share a Lovely recipe with you!

Over the weekend I tried out this recipe of lemonade slice. Its from a blog called 'Smitten Kitchen.' The recipe is a bit like a lemon slice.......but with raspberries in it for an extra little kick. I meant to make it to take to a girls night I had on......but it all got eaten at my house at an impromptu dinner party. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Lemonade Slice

For the bace:

50g of caster sugar

1/4 tsp of lemon zest

1/8 tsp of salt 

115g of butter

125g plain flour

1. Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and lemon zest until light in colour.
2. Add the flour, and stir together until a dough forms.
3. Oil and line a square baking tin, and press the dough with your fingertips into the tin. Don't worry if it isn't completely even.....no one will know! Bake this crust in a preheated oven at 180 for 15 to 20 minutes of until lightly golden.
4. Take out oven and let cool.

 Lemonade Filling:

140g of raspberries

2 large eggs 150g of sugar 

1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

40g of plain flour

1. In a food processor blitz the raspberries until they are all mashed. Then pass them through a sieve to remove any seeds (You will need 3 tbs of this in total.)
2. Beat together the eggs and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
3. Add lemon juice.
4. Add raspberry puree.
5. Mix in flour (mine went a little lumpy from the flour so I passed it through the sieve again.)6.
6. Pour the mix on top of the bace you made earlier and bake in a preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until set......it shouldn't have too much wobble when you take it out.
7. Let cool in the tin for several hours and then slice!
8. Eat it all at a little dinner party you weren't planning on having. Drink too much wine. Gosh dance on the table!