As a child I thought Monte Carlo biscuits were the very height of sophistication. They were the ‘fancy’ bickies that relatives offered when you visited and I used to make the treat last by pulling apart the two halves then scraping the raspberry icing off with my teeth. Oh, yes – so sophisticated. Continue reading
At the library recently, I place where I love to hang out, I found the quirkily titled ‘The Cookiepedia’ by Stacy Adimando. This bible to cookies inspired me no end and the first recipe I road-tested was what the author called lemon chewies with honey.
Baking with lemons produces such a wonderful aroma, and I think the smell of baking is sometimes better than eating the end product 🙂 Continue reading
Joy the Baker is a legend. Her eponymous website is an inspiration and her recipes always work. I had a hankering to make some bickies the other day and her site was my first port of call. She wrote about these lovely brown sugar cookies last September and said she found the recipe in Epicure. Continue reading
I may have mentioned that chocolate orange is my favourite sweet flavour combination. Maybe I was just thinking it. Either way, whenever I see a choc orange recipe I am all over it. These are lovely and so moreish – you will eat many. This is adapted from Simply Recipes. Continue reading
I do love a choc chip. Often the introduction of choc chips to a recipe takes it from blah to wow, can I have more? As much as I love choc chip biscuits I find it tedious to be rolling/flattening/baking tray after tray. So when I stumbled across a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars by the wonderful Two Peas and Their Pod I knew at once I’d be baking it. It all the boxes I was after. Choc chips. Vanilla. Crunchy. Kid-makeable. Continue reading
I adore Donna Hay. I love her magazine, her homewares, her style, her gorgeous store, everything. I’ve been lucky enough to meet her a few times and begged her for a job [no luck there, unfortunately]. I have every edition of her magazines and the vast majority of her cookbooks. All get a workout in my kitchen and her recipes are versatile, simple and usually no fuss.
For my mum’s birthday recently she decreed a ‘no gifts’ policy. The exception was anything home made. With this in mind I set about making her some gingerbread bickies. Mum adores gingerbread and I knew she’d love these.
The recipe is from Donna Hay Magazine issue 6. I use it every year to make gingerbread men at Christmas and it always turns out beautifully.
I dressed the biscuits up with dark chocolate glaze, another Donna Hay recipe, this time from the Simple Essentials – Chocolate book.
GATHER:
125g softened diced butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup golden syrup
2 ½ cups self-raising flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 190C, line two baking trays with baking paper.
Place butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer and beat until light and creamy then add golden syrup.
Add sifted flour, ginger and bicarb soda and stir to combine.
Knead lighty on a floured benchtop to form a smooth dough.
Roll dough between two sheets of non-stick paper until 5mm thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out shapes.
Bake for 8 or so minutes/until golden.
Cool on trays.
When totally cold decorate with choc glaze.
CHOCOLATE GLAZE:
Melt 150g best quality dark chocolate with ½ cup pouring cream in a small pan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Stand for 20 minutes to thicken. Then dunk the biscuits in the melted, gooey mix. Yum.
I keep a container of this in the fridge as it can be used to top a big cake, cupcakes, sandwich biscuits together, heated to pour over ice cream or eaten by the spoonful.
These biscuits were originally made by the wives and mothers of Australian soldiers serving in WW1. They contain no egg so could be sent, via sea mail, to their loved ones on the front line. These Aussie classics are often made in the lead-up to Anzac Day [April 25] and should never, under ANY circumstances, be referred to as cookies. This recipe is from the always helpful taste.com.au but almost every Australian would have their own variation on a theme. Always use rolled oats, not instant.
Lest we forget.
GATHER:
1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup desiccated coconut [I used shredded for a change]
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150g unsalted butter, chopped
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 1/2 tablespoons hot water
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 170C and line two baking tray with baking paper.
Mix flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan over low heat melt butter and golden syrup. Remove from heat.
Mix the bicarb soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons water and add to pan. Stir and add to bowl of dry ingredients.
Shape tablespoon-full of mixture and place on try, leaving space for spreading.
Cook for between 10-13 mins/until golden. Cool for a few minutes on tray before removing to wire rack.
These will keep for yonks in an airtight container.
Is there a more melt-in-the-mouth creation than the melting moment? Buttery. Light. Scrumptious. Swoonworthy. These creations are always a hit and if you were to package them up in a pretty box and give to someone close to your heart they would be very appreciative, I’m sure. You can omit the passionfruit from the icing if it doesn’t float your boat and they will still be gorgeous. Continue reading
Being Australian we call small, sweet baked morsels biscuits. From my extensive blog reading I see that Americans call these items cookies. Let’s chalk it up to cultural differences.
In any case Misses 4 & 6 helped make umpteen of these sprinkle-covered biscuits for their little friends for Easter. It is the recipe I posted on my blog titled Child’s play: super simple sprinkle biscuits even a 4-year-old can make.
All you ned to do is gently push a paddlepop stick into the biscuit prior to baking. Ta da! A bickie on a stick – and as everyone knows, sticks make food taste better.
There is no getting away from the fact that these biscuits are not what you call pretty. They aren’t even plain – they are lock-them-away-in-the-tower unattractive and they aren’t the type of sweet treat you’d see in upmarket eateries. But, if you squint or close your eyes as you take a bite you will understand that they are everything that a biscuit should be: sweet, chocolate-y, satisfying. So let’s remember that old cliche of looks not being important, shall we? This recipe is from Australian Good Taste but as usual, I tweaked it…
GATHER:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
150g cubed butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1 egg
150g good chocolate [they use chopped up choc, I grabbed buttons and they worked fine]
2 tablespoons sifted cocoa powder
Dash best vanilla extract [if you only have vanilla essence – skip it! That stuff is evil and a poor imitation].
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 170C and line two large trays with baking powder.
Place both sugars, vanilla and butter in bowl of electric mixer and beat until creamy and changed colour.
Beat in the egg until combined then add flour and cocoa. Keep beating until everything is combined.
Stir in chocolate using a spoon.
Shape into golf ball size blobs and gently flatten.
Bake 12-ish minutes [you may need a fw more minutes depending on your oven].
Cool on wire racks.
the hungry mum 