Donna Hay chocolate coconut mini cheesecake recipe

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. Continue reading

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. Continue reading

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 chocolate and banana bread recipe

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

Sweet and salty pretzel caramel chocolate chip cookies

7 Apr

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So, the salty/sweet taste craze is a winner in my books. My first toe-in-the-water test was Nigella’s uber-good salted caramel sauce which I believe to be the answer to most of life’s ills.

These cookies were next. The crunch of the pretzel. The sweetness of the caramel. The softness of the cookie. The sighs of goodness…
Continue reading

Easy lemon yogurt cake

23 Mar

lemon yogurt cake The Hungry Mum

Baking with lemon creates such a lovely fresh smell throughout your kitchen that you’ll wonder why you ever bake anything else. This super simple cake is just delish for morning tea, and is perfect with a liberal dusting of icing sugar. The recipe is from my stand-by AWW Quick Mix Cakes book, and all I did was reduce the amount of sugar from the suggested one cup.

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Gather:

125g butter at room temp, diced

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

2 eggs

¾ cup caster sugar

1 ½ cups self-raising flour

¾ cup plain yogurt

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Let’s get to it:

Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line a 14cmx21cm loaf tin with baking paper.

Put all ingredients into bowl of electric mixer and beat until light and changed in colour.

Scrape into pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before cooling completely on wire rack.

Serve as is, or make up a simple icing by mixing 2/3 cup sifted icing sugar with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and enough water to make a pouring consistency. Sprinkle over extra lemon zest.

lemon yogurt cake - The Hungry Mum

Donna Hay hot cross buns for Easter

16 Mar

 

hot cross buns - The Hungry Mum

I make a batch of Donna Hay’s hot cross buns every Easter and when eaten fresh from the oven they are heaven on Earth. Like many baked goods they are best the day they are made. You can pop them under the griller after a day or two [if they last that long!].

Continue reading

Home-made Monte Carlo biscuit / cookie recipe

9 Mar

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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