No Bake Citrus Slice

No need for an oven and extremely easy to make. I like to make a huge batch of the so that I can keep some in the freezer.  So feel free to half the recipe if you don’t want quite so much. This is an extremely versatile recipe you can use any citrus fruit. I always use lemon because I love that intense sweet sour lemon zingy flavour but you can use orange, lime or a combination of all three.  My Mum even makes a coffee version which is also very nice.

Ingredients:

• 200g butter
• 1 can (400g) of sweetened condensed milk
• grated rind of 1 lemon (or 2 if you really want)
• 2 cups desiccated coconut
• 500g biscuit crumbs (2 packets)

Method:

Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in condensed milk.  Add rind and coconut.  Mix well.  In a big bowl, smash up biscuits up using a whatever you have on hand.  I usually use a full tin can or a heavy cup.  You could use a food processor for this but I find that it makes the crumbs too fine.  I like to have a bit of texture, so I leave some bigger bits.  Add the crumbs to the mixture and spread evenly into a paper lined slice tin. Cover with a thick layer of icing.

Citrus icing:

• Knob of butter
• 2 cups icing sugar (approx)
• citrus juice
• grated Citrus rind (the yellow flecks look pretty in the icing)

Mix together until it forms a smooth icing.  If you want a thick layer of icing you will need to add more icing sugar.  Do not be afraid to add more juice if it is too thick or more icing sugar if too watery.

Comment:

I love being creative with this recipe.  I love to use a variety of biscuit crumbs.  I usually use digestive biscuits because I can buy them in bulk (a 1 kg bag of broken biscuits) from a local baking shop.  However, when I made these in NZ I usually used malt biscuits which give a nice flavour and they make the slice a nice rich brown colour.  Oh…I just remembered that I also used gingernut biscuits which give a crunchy texture and the lemon and ginger flavours go really well together. Yum!  Just to let you know that the other reason that I double this mixture is because I always end up throwing away the 1/2 tin of condensed milk that I never end up using.  It is such a waste, so I just make heaps and freeze it as it freezes really well. (actually, it is really nice to eat straight from the freezer, especially on a hot day)

May 2021 Had no lemons so made a lime and passionfruit version. Delish!

Adapted from: My Mum’s Cookbook  Thanks Mum!

Lemon Yogurt Muffins

I needed to make something fast to take to a girlfriends house for a cuppa, so I made these.  They remind me a bit of lemon self saucing pudding, except you drizzle a lemon ‘sauce’ over the muffins after they have cooked.  I feel that they needed a bit of texture, next time I would sprinkle on some crunchy raw sugar.  You can also use flavoured yogurt, I had a yummy mango and peach yogurt in the fridge so I used that and it gave it a nice tropical flavour.

Ingredients:

• rind of two small lemons
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup low-fat yogurt
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 cups self-raising flour

(I had run out of self-raising flour so I made my own by adding 1 & ½ tsp of baking powder to 1 cup of flour)

Oven: place the rack just below the middle.  Heat oven to 200.c (190.c Fan bake)

Method:

Grate the yellow rind from the lemons into a large bowl, add everything else except the flour.  Mix to combine.  Sprinkle the flour over the wet mixture and fold it in gently.  Do not over mix!

Place into a 12 regular muffin pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake for 10-15 mins or until the muffin springs back when pressed in the centre.

While still warm drizzle the lemon glazse over the muffins.

Lemon glaze:

add 2 tsps of lemon juice to 2 tbs of icing sugar and mix to make a ‘watery’ icing

Comment:

very fast and easy to make / great way to use up a couple of lemons / butter free, so they are healthy which means you can eat at least two if not three or four.

Adapted from: 100 favourite muffins and slices by Simon and Alison Holst