At this time of year I find my fridge buried beneath Christmas parties invites and the calendar bursting the seams with catch-ups. Not for me, silly – for I am but a mum. It is Misses 10 and 12 for whom the invites appear and at this time of the year it is at a rate of at least one each per day. Continue reading
My all time favorite dessert is tiramisu. Having said that I am loathe to make it as 1) it generally makes a shedload and 2) I would eat the entire shedload due to point 1)
Oh, what a luscious desert it is – mascarpone, coffee, alcohol, crunchy, sweetness, creaminess… it is everything you could ever want in a dessert.
I wanted to take my favourite aspects of this dessert – namely, coffee, chocolate and alcohol – and use them as a base for a small little biscuit, or cookie.
I was so happy with the way these Marsala chocolate coffee biscuits turned out. They were so easy to make and even easier to eat. Ensure you allow resting time for the dough before baking.
These little bickies – I made them petite but if you want to make them bigger just adjust the baking time – are so fudgy and delicious. I don’t have a sweet tooth but found myself constantly reaching for another biscuit, especially when I was having a coffee.
I am a coffee snob and only drink real coffee ie espresso-based. If you don’t have access to espresso you could substitute instant coffee but it won’t carry the same richness of flavour.
GATHER:
120g butter, chopped and softened
¾ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup golden syrup
1 egg
3 tablespoon cooled espresso
2 tablespoons marsala
2 cups plain flour
¼ teaspoon cocoa
Icing sugar to serve
Let’s get to it:
Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
In bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment beat butter, sugar and golden syrup until pale and fluffy – around four minutes.
Turn off beaters, scrape down bowl with a spatula, then with beaters on low speed beat in egg, espresso and marsala until combined. Add flour and cocoa and mix until combined.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place mixture in fridge for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 180°C and then roll small balls of the dough into walnut-size balls and place trays.
Bake for 8 minutes then sit on tray for five minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
When cold dust with icing sugar and serve.
Christmas in Sydney is a hot and humid affair. There`s none of the snow and ice skating and roasting things by a roaring fire. Here it is a swim after a cold seafood lunch and trying to avoid the flies and sunburn. Continue reading
The festival of the birthday month continues in the Hungry House! Miss 8 is now Miss 9 and any Miss 10 is a newly minted Miss 11. Where has the time gone?!
Birthday baking fever has hit and every day in the lead-up to their birthdays I can be found dicing butter, measuring flour, pre-heating ovens and running out of eggs. My freezer is full of cupcakes, waiting to be iced, and I think I have cleared out the sprinkles aisle at my supermarket. Continue reading
I bake most days so generally the family is pretty blasé about my baked treats. This giant double chocolate skillet cookie is the exception. Upon pulling it from the oven I was met with a chorus of ‘oooh, yum!’, ‘that looks amazing!’, ‘I’m going to eat the whole thing’ etc etc.
Miss 10 adores white chocolate, so I used white choc chips for her. The Hungry Dad and I love dark chocolate so added them for us. Miss 8 has yet to meet a type of chocolate she didn’t adore so she would be thrilled with anything with a trace of cocoa in it.
As always, the simple things in life are often the best – this recipe is basically one huge chocolate chip cookie that you bake in a skillet / frying pan in the oven. Ensure that your pan has a metal handle – do not place a plastic-handled pan in the oven unless you want a toxic, stinking mess/ house fire/ both.
This easy baking recipe uses common ingredients you probably have in the pantry. Even if you do need to buy them to bake this, rest assured that you will use them for many, many other baking recipes.
Eating this giant chocolate skillet cookie warm from the oven was a highlight of my day – it is gooey and delicious and so utterly scrumptious that I may have eaten a great proportion of it without realising. Might just have to bake this again soon…
GATHER:
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
85 grams unsalted butter, diced, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup white choc chips
1/4 cup dark choc chips
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 180 Celsius and thoroughly spray a 20cm round oven-proof frying pan / skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl use a silver spoon to beat together butter, vanilla and both sugars then beat in the egg until just combined.
Tip in the in flour, baking soda and all the chocolate chips and mix until just combined. Scrape into the pan and use an off-set spatula to even out the top.
Bake until cookie is light golden brown and just starting to set in the centre, around 18 minutes.
Let cool 5 minutes then slice into wedges to serve.
Regular readers will know that The Hungry Dad recently raided his mum’s lemon tree for my baking pleasure. Our lemon bowl is still plentiful but another recent visit to mum-in-law’s house resulted in yet more lemons coming home with us. Continue reading
Dulce de leche bought from the shops is good, but the stuff you make yourself is even better. This silky South American treat is made by cooking sweetened condensed milk at a very low temperature for many hours. This simple process of heating sweetened milk will change you life. You can use it as a filling between two cakes, dollop it over ice-cream, swirl it through whipped cream, eat it straight from the jar… Continue reading
I don’t have a sweet tooth, despite being a complete chocolate-lover as a kid. I really think I ate so much of the stuff back in the day that it doesn’t really do it for me any more.
What I do love is when chocolate is paired with something unexpected. The combination of chocolate and spices, for instance, is a real fav. I love the way the different tastes meld together and create a rich, interesting sensation that is a million miles from your average block of chocolate. Continue reading
It isn’t too late to make something delicious and heart-felt for your love for Valentine’s Day. Forget spending the big bucks on over-priced blooms or shelling out for mediocre chocolates: these red velvet cookies make a perfect Valentine’s Day gift or dessert. Continue reading
My mini schnauzer Popcorn is a sucker for treats. She should really be on the Schmackos ad – she recognises the sights, smell and even sound of a pack of these dog treats through closed doors, out of the house and into the garage where they are kept. Continue reading
the hungry mum 