Tag Archives: biscuit

The best brown sugar cookie recipe to bake

21 May

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So, exciting news sports fans: Miss9’s soccer team will be playing at half-time of tonight’s Matilda’s game! For those that aren’t into soccer, the Matildas are the Australian national soccer team and they are playing Vietnam tonight at a stadium half an hour away. Miss9’s team will take to the field at half-time to play a short game. Yippee!

To keep energy levels up I have made these brown sugar cookies for the team (Miss9’s, not the Matildas!). I have made brown sugar bickies many times but they have never been as good as these. Continue reading

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Red velvet cookies with cream cheese filling

4 Jan

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I was looking for red velvet-themed baking recipes to make. I found enough to keep me baking every day for the rest of my life but there was something about this one that caught me eye. Red velvet is my fav flavour on the rare occasion that I indulge in sweet treats so I knew I had to make these. Continue reading

Donna Hay white chocolate and macadamia biscuits / cookies

12 Jun

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So as you may have noticed I quite enjoying baking 🙂 I especially love sharing my baked goods with family and friends – despite my adoration of turning sugar, flour and eggs into cakes and biscuits I’m not such a sweet tooth. #teamSavoury.

As is my wont I made these Donna Hay white chocolate and macadamia bickies [or cookies, for my American friends] and took them into work this week. My friend Jane declared these morsels to be some of my best work. When I relayed this compliment to the Hungry Dad he agreed.

Continue reading

Iced Vo Vo Cake for Australia Day

24 Jan

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If you’re reading this in the northern hemisphere the title of this post may seem nonsensical. Australia readers [and maybe New Zealanders] will get it: this cake pays homage to a biscuit that many of us grew up with. Made by Arnotts it is plain vanilla bickie with puffy pink marshmallow topping and a river of raspberry jam down the centre. The whole creation is then sprinkled with desiccated coconut. Sickly? A bit. To children of a certain generation they were the ultimate in lunchbox treats.

With Australia Day looming Miss8 and I decided to do a riff on this old fav, using cake instead of cookie, as the base. Continue reading

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

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.

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

Fast and simple one bowl chocolate chip bar recipe

20 May

Image 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

Dark chocolate lace cookie biscuits

7 May

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I’ve come across these biscuits before with different names but I think the genius cooks at The Australian Women’s Weekly have bestowed upon these sweet morsels the best name: chocolate lace crisps. Once again this recipe is from their bible Bake.

I’ve made these many times and despite not having an overly sweet tooth I adore them. According to the notes I’ve scrawled in my cook book I first made them for a mother’s day picnic in 2010 and I made them recently for another picnic that was called off [due to bad weather]. In fact I love them so much that they are used as my WordPress image.

These are so delicious due to the dark chocolate so make sure you don’t use nasty compound stuff or they won’t taste anywhere near as good.

GATHER:

100g chopped dark chocolate

80g butter, diced

1 egg

¾ cup caster sugar [or even a smidge less]

1 cup plain flour, sifted

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon bicarb of soda

¼ cup sifted icing sugar

LET’S GET TO IT:

Place chocolate and butter in a medium sized pan and melt over a very low heat until glossy and smooth.

Remove from heat, allow to cool for about five minutes, then stir in sugar, cocoa, flour, soda and egg.

Place in fridge for 10-15 minutes or until mix is firm enough to handle.

Heat oven to 180C and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Place icing sugar on a small plate.

Make a ball [about the size of a golf ball] with mixture, roll in icing sugar and place on baking tray.

Bake 12-15 minutes and cool on trays.

See my Hungry Mum column in Thursday’s Leader here.

Easy passionfruit melting moments

19 Apr

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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