Brown sugar M&M cookies / biscuits

19 Jun

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If in doubt, bake. That’s pretty much my mantra and it applies to all sorts of moods: feeling down? Bake. Stressed? Make some cupcakes. Happy? Turn on the oven and crack out the KitchenAid, coz we’re going to get our bake on.

I can’t remember what mood I was in when I baked these more-ish brown sugar and M&M cookies but I do recall the delicious scent that wafted through the kitchen as they were cooking. And I remember feeling so tempted that I immediately ate one as soon as they were out of the oven [note: hot bickies are hot].

Brown sugar, for those new to the whole caper, add a depthness of flavour that caster [white] sugar can’t. It also sounds much posher, dontcha think?

This is a mash-up of a couple of recipes from the Australian Women’s Weekly weighty tome Bake. Buy it – you’ll love it.

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Gather:

200g butter, diced and at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 ¾ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon bicarb soda

3/4 cup M&Ms

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Let’s get to it:

Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat butter, vanilla, sugar and egg in bowl of electric mixer until light and creamy.

Sift in flour and bicarb, stir until mixed then stir in M&Ms.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place on trays about 3cm apart.

Bake 14-ish minutes/until golden, cool on trays.

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This is Popcorn, my mini schnauzer, hoping she could sample one. #no

Recipe: Donna Hay dark chocolate coconut mini cheesecakes

10 Jun

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Oh Donna, you’ve done it again. I reckon that Ms Hay’s eponymous magazine is just getting better as time goes on. There’s a wider variety of recipes and they are all just so tempting that I every time a new edition appears in my letterbox I want to race to the kitchen and bake. That’s surely a sign of a fab mag.

The recent issue 68 had a cheesecake special, which totally had me drooling. The recipe that most caught my eye was dark chocolate coconut mini cheesecakes with pomegranate syrup. Not being a pomegranate fan I omitted this but don’t think mine were any the poorer for it.

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In a rare critique of Donna Hay I will say that the quantities / servings for this recipe were all over the shop. The magazine stated it would serve 6 – I can’t tell you how many it made. Way, way more than 6. I made 6 in large size muffin tins [as per the recipe] and it didn’t make a dent in the mix. Then I made at least 8 in mini muffin tins and still I had ingredients left over. By then I was over lining muffing tins with crosses of paper so I made macaroons to use the leftover coconut mix, and little chocolate pots with the remaining choc cheesecake mix. The Hungry Dad made short work of those little choc pots, let me tell you.

GATHER:

Base:

3 ½ cups shredded coconut

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 eggwhites

50 gram butter, melted

filling

150g cream cheese, softened

100g ricotta

½ cup caster sugar

150g dark chocolate, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 150C.

Grease a mini muffin tin or standard size muffin tin with non-stick spray [depending on how many you want to make – the smaller ones would look tres chic at a tea party] and place strips of baking paper in a cross pattern to allow for easy removal of cakes.

Mix base ingredients together in a bowl then using a spoon gently press into base and sides of muffin tins.

Bake 15 mins for big size, 11 mins for small / until golden, then set aside to cool.

For filling: place all ingredients into food processor and process until smooth [you may need to scrape down sides a couple of times].

Pour into shells and bake 20-ish for big / 13-ish for small [you want them to be a little bit custard-like in centre].

Bring to room temperature then place in fridge for one hour.

Serve cold.

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Alison Thompson’s spiced roulade with vanilla buttercream

27 May

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I fell in love with the book ‘Bake – Essential Companion’ by pastry queen Alison Thompson after borrowing it from the library and my lovely hubby surprised with a copy of my own for mother’s day last year.

If you’re a baking fanatic like me you’ll have hours of kitchen fun with this book. I’d never attempted a roulade until this one and I must say, I was very nervous. I did have a few problems with cracks in my cake and totally panicked until the Hungry Dad came to my rescue [swoon] and solved the issue with some ingenious use of plastic wrap. And the finished product was utterly delectable. I omitted the original recipe’s ¼ teaspoon ground cloves as my pantry was clove-free.

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GATHER:

2 eggs

60g butter, diced, softened

250g golden syrup

110g plain flour

75g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarb

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 tablespoons milk

50g caster sugar

vanilla buttercream

150g butter, softened, diced

120g icing sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped.

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LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 20cmx30cm baking tray with baking paper.

In bowl of electric mixer beat butter until smooth, then add golden syrup and sift in flours, bicarb and spices.

Add eggs and mix well, then add milk and mix until combine.

Spread batter over tray and bake 12-15ish minutes then remove and stand for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle a large piece of baking paper with the caster sugar then gently turn the cake onto the paper. Starting from a long side roll the cake into a log with the aid of the paper.

Leave for 10 minutes then unroll the cake and allow to cool completely.

Meanwhile make the vanilla buttercream: In bowl of electric mixer beat everything until pale and creamy.

Spread over the cake then roll up. Place seam on the underside to serve.

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Fresh ginger biscuits / cookies

14 May

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My mum’s birthday and Mother’s Day are just one week apart, which means trying to get presents for both events is tricky. First world problem, I know, but after all my mum has done [and continues to do] for me I feel I need to give her something.

Mum adores ginger and last year I made her a jar of Donna Hay gingerbread biscuits, which she loved.

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This year I had a ginormous amount of fresh ginger so searched out a cookie recipe that used the real stuff. I found it at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fresh-ginger-cookies/

This produces a spicy biscuit, which is perfect for ginger fans. The original recipe called for the cookie to be rolled in sugar before baking but I opted to stud mine with dark choc, and some with walnut pieces, and some with both [for those indecisive moments].

I also reduced the amount of sugar in the original recipe as I wanted something a bit tart.

You’ll need an hour to chill dough so allow plenty of time when making this [guess who didn’t?]

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GATHER:

2 ¼ cups plain flour

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger [tip – keep your ginger in the freezer to make grating simple]

1 egg

¼ cup golden syrup

¾ cup caster sugar

170g butter

walnut pieces or dark chocolate pieces to decorate

 LET’S GET TO IT:

Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

In bowl of electric mixer beat ginger, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in golden syrup and egg then fold in flour until just combined.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 170C and roll golf ball size clumps of dough.

Place on tray, flatten gently with fork and top with walnut or chocolate [or both].

Bake for 14-ish minutes and allow to cool on rack.

Salted chocolate chip and toffee biscuits / cookies

7 May

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Hands up if you think Twitter is addictive? Now, wave your arms in the air like you just don’t care if you find Pinterest more addictive than chocolate? Just as I thought – that site is one helluva a rabbit hole. I always find inspiration and great baking ideas but I spend yonks of time going off on all sorts of fab tangents. Continue reading 

Chocolate orange bundt cake

23 Apr

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This is one of my favourite cakes to bake and eat so I was gobsmacked that I hadn’t blogged it already. I searched my blog twice, convinced that I must have already shared such a fab cake with everyone but I hadn’t. MAJOR oversight.

I used a recipe is called ‘Anna Encel’s Wonderful Babka’ in a fav cookbook of mine called ’50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes’ that gets a major workout in my kitchen.

Like I tend to do I reduced the amount of sugar by half a cup. The original recipe called for 3 tablespoons of drinking chocolate which I changed to melted chocolate. I normally use 100grams of dark chocolate but this time I broke up one of the many milk chocolate Easter bunnies that my girls got for Easter and used that instead. Shhh, don’t say a word….

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Gather:

250g butter, melted

3 large eggs

2 ½ cups self-raising flour

1 cup caster sugar

100g melted dark chocolate

1 ½ cups orange juice

½ tsp orange liqueur [optional]

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Let’s get to it:

Preheat oven to 180C and thoroughly grease a bundt tin, ensuring you get into all the crevices.

Put all the ingredients except the melted chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until well combined.

Pour one half of the mix into the bundt tin then dollop in the melted chocolate. Cover with the remaining batter

Bake 40-ish minutes [depending on your oven you may need another 5 or so minutes]

Allow to cool in tin for about 30 minutes before tipping onto wire rack.

Donna Hay’s chocolate and banana bread.

11 Apr

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Looking back I really should have named my blog ‘Donna Hay’s biggest fan bakes’ for that pretty much sums up my approach to cooking and blogging. And life, really. Continue reading 

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