A little slice of heaven
all other base ingredients. Mix well to combine.
Press mixture firmly into prepared tin and bake 15-20 minutes or until base starts to colour to a nice golden brown.
While the base is in the oven, rinse out the pan and make the icing. Place butter and golden syrup in saucepan and melt over a medium heat. Add icing sugar and ginger and whisk until well combined and there are no lumps. Mix in cream or milk.
Take cooked base from oven and leave to sit for 5 minutes then pour icing over. Sprinkle with roasted pistachios and chopped crystallised ginger. Place slice in the fridge and allow to set for a few hours before cutting into pieces.
Makes about 24 pieces * To roast pistachios, spread them on a baking tray and bake at 150C for 10-15 minutes. Cool completely before using.
Fig & honey cheesecake
You can’t go past the combination of fig and honey and adding this to a cheesecake seemed inevitable. This is a very special version, made with honeycomb and Bonnie oatcakes, a New Zealand artisan product (bonniegoods.co.nz) that give the base a wonderful texture. Another oaty biscuit or even plain wine biscuits could be substituted. Base 250g Bonnie kamahi honey oatcakes, crushed 80g butter, melted Filling 250ml cream 2 tsp gelatin, dissolved in cup boiling water 500g cream cheese, softened
cup caster sugar 2 tsp liquid honey
cup roughly chopped dried figs 5-6 fresh figs, sliced into quarters 1 block honeycomb (as big as you like)
Grease and line the base of a 35cm x 13cm or 23cm round flan tin with baking paper.
In a bowl mix crushed oatcakes and melted butter until well combined. Press mixture into flan tin and place in the freezer to set.
Whip cream to soft peaks. Prepare gelatin mixture and set aside to cool.
In a large electric mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, mix cream cheese and caster sugar until sugar has dissolved, about 4-5 minutes.
Add liquid honey and mix until combined. Add gelatin mix. Once well combined, remove bowl from machine and gently fold in the whipped cream and dried figs. Remove base from freezer and pour filling over base.
Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours to set. When ready to serve, decorate with fresh figs and honeycomb pieces.
Serves 8-10
Edibles
Plant garlic and shallots, any time from now until early spring. Put them pointy end up, half the bulb deep about 10cm apart in rows about 40cm apart in free-draining, friable soil in a sunny spot.
Sow broad beans in well-drained soil enriched with compost in double rows, 20cm apart and with beans 10cm apart. Plant citrus and strawberries. Get frost cloth in place over tender plants such as black passionfruit and young citrus trees.
Feed fruit trees and bushes by piling a hefty dose of compost around their bases (but not touching the trunks), then a thick layer of organic mulch.
Ornamentals
Feed daphne with an acid fertiliser (and repeat in spring). If its leaves are looking pallid and yellow, worry not, this tends to be common just before flowering.
Cut back old leaves on hellebores to just above ground level. New buds and flowers should be poking through the earth under them. Sprinkle lime around the plants and mulch with horse manure.
Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials.
Lift bedding begonias and keep under cover (in a shed or garage) over winter for spring replanting.
Keep on top of weeds – they won’t stop growing until the soil gets really cold.
Trim hedges lightly, remembering that any subsequent new growth will be susceptible to damage should an early frost strike.
Take hardwood cuttings of shrubs such as buddleia, flowering currant, deutzia, dogwood, forsythia, hydrangea, philadelphus, rose and viburnum; of climbers such as honeysuckle; fruit such as gooseberries, currants, fig and mulberry and many deciduous trees. Plant spring bulbs and corms. Fertilise lawns.
Containers
Any frost-tender plants should be shifted under shelter. Or have frost cloth at the ready to drape over them should frosts threaten.
Plants growing outdoors in containers can easily get waterlogged in winter. To protect against this, raise pots above the ground – just enough to allow drainage from the pot.
Tulips may be planted in containers now and brought into position once the flower buds appear.
Top tips
Cardboard toilet paper rolls slipped over leek plants will help prevent soil getting into the inner leaves while it grows.
Likewise, tying the tops of cauliflowers together over the white flowering head will protect them from rain, hail and even possums and rats.
Throwing pieces of old carpet, grain bags, sacks or even tarpaulins over compost heaps will keep them warmer over winter and aid decomposition.