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Joy! My First Recipe Book is Here!

Lovely ones, for years and years, you’ve been telling me how much my books make your mouth water and make you hungry and how much you want me to write a recipe book. Well, finally I have put together my first recipe book, and it’s available from today, just in time for Christmas celebrations and gift giving.

Joy: GET YOUR COPY NOW

What’s in it? My blue ribbon winning strawberry jam recipe, for one. 🙂 These recipes are family friendly, all gluten free by default (but you can substitute your own flour, no problem) and usually dairy free (but you can also substitute your usual replacements). They are highly flexible recipes, made for you to play with. Cooking is creative, after all, so I want my recipes to be inspiring and supporting, as much as they are instructional.

I’ve also included a five-page special event guide on How To Throw A Tuscan Feast. This is a great event for a special occasion, such as Christmas, Easter or (as I did) for a special wedding anniversary. I’ve also included recipes for cakes, cupcakes, icing, cocktails, apple crumble, a hearty chicken dinner, gingerbread and more.

My food stories and recipes are inspired by my bestselling foodie fiction books. For years, I’ve wanted to bring you, my readers, this accessible, family friendly and tested collection of some of my favourite recipes. This is the first volume of recipes, accompanied by behind-the-scenes stories and memories. It’s a great idea for a Christmas gift for a loved one, especially if you can’t catch up in person – you can send this ebook to them, wherever they are.

I hope you love it.

Jo x

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Jo’s Mandarin Marmalade

Honestly, there is not much that is more joyful than the scent of mandarins!

Cool autumn mornings will surely benefit from the refreshing, uplifting scent of mandarin marmalade on toast!

Ingredients

  • 1 kg of mandarins
  • 30 ml fresh lemon juice
  • 30ml of fresh lime juice
  • 1 litre of water
  • Allow for 1 kg of white sugar (see method)

Method

  1. Place washed, whole mandarins in a heavy saucepan with the lemon juice and water and bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered for approximately 45 minutes or until the mandarins are soft.
  2. Remove the mandarins from the liquid and reserve the liquid. Coarsely chop the mandarins, including the rind, sizing the pieces to your own satisfaction. This can be quite rustic, with large pieces if you like it that way. Discard the seeds, then return the fruit and rind back to the liquid in the pot.
  3. Measure your fruit and liquid mixture. For each cup of fruit/liquid mixture, measure out 1 cup of sugar, then minus one cup. (That is, if you have 5.5 cups of fruit/liquid mixture, add 4.5 cups of sugar.) Return the fruit/liquid mixture to the saucepan and add the sugar.
  4. Bring the mixture to the boil and continue to let it boil uncovered and without stirring for approximately half an hour, or until you deem the jam is set.
  5. Pour your hot marmalade into your hot, sterilised jars and seal immediately.

Enjoy!

Jo x

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Mini Meringue Bites

These meringue bites are so simple (and inexpensive), they’ll become your go-to treat for any last-minute guests dropping in for coffee, or maybe use them as additional birthday party treats.

This is another recipe from The Cake Maker’s Wish. My cake maker, Olivia, gets to have fun creating a wedding cake for a celebrity couple and adds meringues as embellishments to her design, which is another great use for these mini meringues.

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The basic meringue recipe is simple but it’s also flexible as you can change the colour (pink, blue, white, caramel or rainbow unicorn!) or flavour (think vanilla, chocolate, coffee, rose or orange blossom) to suit your taste or needs. Glam them up or keep them simple. They can go as far as your imagination desires.

This one can also be gluten free. (In theory, cream of tartar is gluten free but if you have any concerns about it being processed in the same facility as grains then check with the manufacturer.)

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites, room temperature… free range, please… I love my chooks 🙂
  • 1 cup of castor sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • Add colours or flavours of your choice (e.g. vanilla, rosewater, orange blossom water, coffee, chocolate powder, strawberry powder, jam etc.). Add these to the desired taste or effect but most flavourings only require about half a teaspoon.

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 120C.
  2. Beat your egg whites and cream of tartar until they are beginning to hold shape.
  3. Add in your sugar a little at a time, mixing well between additions until the sugar is completely mixed through and the meringue is white, fluffy and holds stiff peaks.
  4. Add your vanilla and/or flavourings or colourings of choice and beat through.
  5. Pipe your mini meringues onto baking trays lined with paper. Bite-sized pieces could be the size of a twenty-cent coin.
  6. Place the trays in the oven and reduce the heat to 90C and bake for around an hour and a half. You want them to cook slowly so that they harden into bites.

Tip

Have fun with these! You could try splitting the meringue into two halves and colouring them differently, then putting both colours into a bag and piping them in a swirl to show both colours.

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Guess What? I Have Goodies for You if you Pre-Order The Cake Maker’s Wish!

Copy of Spring Seasonal Outfits

GET YOUR SIGNED COPIES Of THE CAKE MAKER’S WISH

*USE THIS LINK*

Thank you to everyone who has asked about signed copies of The Cake Maker’s Wish. This is how you can get yourself not only a signed copy but extra goodies too!

Sandy Pages Books at Noosa (one of my local stores) can help.

If you pre-order the book before 18th May, I’ll be able to pop into the store to sign it for you or a loved one for their birthday or get-well gift… whatever you like.

To say thank you for pre-ordering, I’m going to email you an exclusive invitation to an online gathering to chat to me about the book (or dogs, or chocolate or cakes!)

AND I’ll send you an exclusive recipe that I’ve been working on from NEXT YEAR’S book (currently called The Jam Queen) that you might like to try out to bring to the gathering.

AND, Shamini is also discounting the RRP just for you!

As soon as the book is available, Shamini can post it straight to you. If you are local to Noosa, she can deliver it to your door. If you are outside Noosa but able to drive to the Noosa store, you can pick it up and save the postage.

 

  • Please note: the book is officially released on 2 June. If you would like to order for Mother’s Day, just let me know and I can email you a gift certificate you can print out and give to your mum.

Hooray! Physically distant but socially connected author-reader goodness!

Already pre-ordered the book? No problem! Simply email me your receipt and I’ll send you the invite too. Email: josephinemoon@live.com.au

CLICK HERE to get ordering. I can’t wait to get signing and I’m excited to meet you online!

 

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Tuscan White Bean Soup — Recipe from Three Gold Coins

This is one of my favourite recipes that I developed while researching and writing Three Gold Coins. Perfect for these cooling nights!

Tuscan White Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 large leek (or 2 small ones)

2 garlic cloves

1 potato (I use Dutch Cream potatoes all the time, just because I love them the best)

1 parsnip

Half a head of cauliflower

1 carrot (optional… it will change the colour of your soup, but it’s a good way to use up vegetables in your crisper!)

2 cans of cannellini beans

4 cups stock (I use lamb bone broth)

Salt and pepper to taste

The leaves of a few sprigs of fresh thyme (just pick them, wash them and use your fingers to strip the sprigs)

2 Tbs lemon juice

Method

Chop all your vegetables.

  1. Fry your leek and garlic in olive oil under fragrant.
  2. Add the rest of the your chopped vegetables and mix thoroughly, allowing to cook for a few minutes.
  3. Add water just to the top of the vegetables and simmer for ten minutes.
  4. Add your stock and cook for ??
  5. Allow liquid to reduce a little if it seems to watery, otherwise proceed to blending.
  6. Blend half your soup until creamy then return to the pot. (Or blend three quarters, or even the whole lot. It depends how you like your soup.)
  7. Add your salt, pepper, thyme and lemon juice and heat through.
  8. Serve with sprigs of thyme for garnish and a side of crusty bread
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Tuscan White Bean Soup

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It’s been really cold (relative for the Sunshine Coast) and wet here lately so yesterday I made my first warming soup for the season and boy was it good! So I thought I’d share it with you.

This is my Tuscan-inspired white bean soup and I am declaring it my best soup ever! The lemon and thyme together just bring this soup to a whole new level. Enjoy! xx

 

Ingredients

1 large leek (or 2 small ones)

2 garlic cloves

1 potato (I use Dutch Cream potatoes all the time, just because I love them the best)

1 parsnip

Half a head of cauliflower

1 carrot (optional… it will change the colour of your soup, but it’s a good way to use up vegetables in your crisper!)

2 cans of cannellini beans (drained of juice)

4 cups stock (I use lamb bone broth)

Salt and pepper to taste

The leaves of a few sprigs of fresh thyme (just pick them, wash them and use your fingers to strip the sprigs)

2 Tbs lemon juice

Pecorino cheese (optional)

Method

Chop all your vegetables.

  1. Fry your leek and garlic in olive oil under fragrant.
  2. Add the rest of the your chopped vegetables and mix thoroughly, allowing to cook for a few minutes.
  3. Add water just to the top of the vegetables and simmer for ten minutes.
  4. Add your stock and cook for up to 30 minutes, until all vegetables are well cooked.
  5. Allow liquid to reduce a little if it seems to watery, otherwise proceed to blending.
  6. Blend half your soup until creamy then return to the pot. (Or blend three quarters, or even the whole lot. It depends how you like your soup.)
  7. Add your salt, pepper, thyme and lemon juice and heat through.
  8. Serve with sprigs of thyme for garnish and a side of crusty bread, and grated pecorino cheese if using.
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My Chocolate Tourism Bucket List

Do you love your chocolate? Me too! And other than combining chocolate with a good book, I can’t think of too many things I like better than pairing chocolate with visiting a new place of interest. (And Easter is the perfect time to combine holidays and chocolate!)

While writing my novel, The Chocolate Promise (also called The Chocolate Apothecary in the UK), researching and taste-testing chocolate pretty much took over my life—and my dress size! And my palette for chocolate has changed. Only the finest will do these days. So now, I’ve begun writing myself a ‘Chocolate Tourism Bucket List’, to continue my love affair with this heavenly food.

Selection of chocolate in a row

Here are my current Top 5 locations:

  1. Antica Dolceria Bonajuto. This is the oldest chocolate factory in Sicily. Let’s just consider that for a moment: chocolate + Sicily. It’s a no brainer, right? Top of my list.
  2. Puyricard. This French chocolate artisan store is located just outside of Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, which is where the main character of The Chocolate Promise spends time with a master chocolatier, roams the beautiful countryside and encounters unexpected romance. I soaked up the research for this part of the novel and am positively salivating to go there in person and enjoy the delights of Provence, including this chocolate store.
  3. Chocolate Walking Tour of Melbourne. A little closer to home for me, this would be a delightful weekend treat. Melbourne is known by many to be the food capital of Australia and I’ve no doubt the chocolate on this tour would leave a lasting impression. I only hear good things about this one. Definitely a To-Do, sooner, rather than later, I think. (At least the plane flight would be a quick one!)
  4. Rococo. I certainly couldn’t comprise this list without including a visit to Rococo in London. You’ll find an acknowledgement to Chantal Coady (founder of Rococo) for her inspiration that influenced The Chocolate Promise and for good reason. I pored over her book, Rococo: Mastering the Art of Chocolate, as research for my novel. I even imported some of her creations. (The milk rose is my favourite.) I think I’d like to rent a flat just around the corner and simply hang out there every day, breathing it all in.
  5. Cailler. I’ve been to Switzerland but only once and I would love to go back there. (I’ve even been trying to work in some sort of Swiss plot into a novel so I can have a tax-deductible reason to go.) And this factory has some pretty great architecture to go with the experience.

So there’s my shortlist to get me (and maybe you) started. I’m sure there are dozens of amazing places around the world that would keep me entertained on my chocolate tours. I’d love to hear your recommendations if you have any?

Love

Jo xx

p.s. Here’s a recipe from Chantal Coady for Chocolate Ganache Teacups, which fortuitously combines two of my favourite foods: chocolate and tea!

 

 

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The Chocolate Promise, excerpt and chocolate lavender truffle ball recipe!

My new novel, The Chocolate Promise, is in production and the book will be out in April 2015. In the meantime, here’s a lovely piece to whet your appetite, an excerpt and a divine recipe for chocolate lavender truffle balls. Oh boy!

Chocolate Promise Mag Flyer copy