These are our most requested Today Show recipes from 2021

I love joining Today Show each week to try out food trends and fads and to showcase fun hacks that actually make life easier and tastier. Each week we show off some fun and deliciously easy tricks and then we get the joy of seeing people ask all about them.

Recipes are tried and tested and there's no smoke and mirrors. If we went through it on Today Show and 9Honey, then it's a recipe or hack that works... not just a social media video or trend. We do the hard work so that you don't have to and simply discard the things that aren't that great.

So, when I was asked which five recipes were my favourite of 2021, the thing that made the decision easy was knowing that these five recipes had people raving; my friends, family, fans of Today Show and 9Honey. They are great fun and they are certainly delicious.

So here we go.

Jane's top five recipes from Today Show and 9Honey 2021.

1 - The Aussie egg burger hack

This is where you take your classic cheeseburger or Big Mac, but you fill the middle of the patty with an egg while you fry it, so that when you bite in, you get oozy egg yolk. Stunning.

RECIPE: Aussie egg burger trick

2 - Potato gem pizza base

The trick here is to defrost your potato gems, press them into a pizza tray in a nice neat pattern, squash them down, lay some cheese on top and bake them for 15minutes. Pull it out, top it with more cheese, pizza toppings and pop it back in the oven for ten mins to melt the cheese and then serve.

It's impressive and hilarious and combines gems and pizza in the most impressive way. You can do the same thing with hash browns too.

We also used gems and hash browns as the layers in lasagne... and that was amazing too. As well as turning them into waffles.

RECIPE: Potato gem pizza base, lasagne and more...

3 - Cheddar or Parmesan chips

This must be the easiest treat ever with just one ingredient; grated cheddar, parmesan or tasty cheese.

Method:

Heat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Make small piles of grated cheese on the trays, leaving enough room to spread. Bake the cheese for 8-10minutes (keep an eye on it) until it is melted into discs and beginning to go crunchy, looking at the edges. Remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool. They will go crunchier as they cool. Best lunchbox snack ever. Or perfect for NYE with drinks.

4 - The rigatoni (honeycomb) pasta cake trick

This one did the rounds on Tiktok and when I tried it, I had a great time. It's very impressive and it's that show-stopping moment that you take the cake tin off that everyone raves over. It's hilarious and delicious. Try it.

RECIPE: The rigatoni (honeycomb) pasta cake trick

5 - Ted Lasso shortbread biscuits

One of the greatest examples of food attached to a TV show recently has been the Ted Lasso phenomenon. The feel-good show just hit all the right notes as we worked our way through pandemic lockdowns. It was bright and funny, and it had those 'biscuits with the boss' shortbread fingers that had the character of Rebecca is fits of delight. They were so inviting that I made a version of them myself. Like so many other people were doing.

The trick is to use a really buttery shortbread recipe and bake it square in a tin and then cut it into fingers.

There are, of course, loads of great recipes that we cooked throughout the year — I'm looking at you Vegemite ginger beer ham — but these are the ones that people go out of their way to tell us they really enjoyed. And that's a pretty strong vote.

Let's hope 2022 is just as delicious.