Tag Archives: easy

Donna Hay gingerbread biscuit [cookies] recipe with dark chocolate

17 May

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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Child-friendly easy apple crumble pudding dessert

14 May

Want a quick, warming dessert for these cool autumn nights? This apple crumble is just about the easiest recipe you’ll ever make. As you can see from the photos I roped in Misses 4 and 6 and they did everything except using the oven. So put your kids to work and enjoy this dessert tonight. Continue reading →

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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.

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Easy raspberry butter cake

4 May

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Once again my trusty AWW bible, Bake, has provided me with a delicious, easy, can’t-stuff-it-up cake. I present the buttery and moreish raspberry butter cake that can be made with fresh or frozen berries [I always use frozen but never defrost them before use].

Thank you to the wonderfully wonderful Anna Warr for the gorgeous photos [http://www.facebook.com/AnnaWarrPhotography]

GATHER:

125g diced butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup raspberries

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line a round 20cm cake tin.

Butter butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy and then beat in eggs one at a time.

Stir in milk and flour in two batches.

Fold in 1/4 cup raspeberries.

Spread 3/4 of cake mix into pan and sprinkle with remaining berries then spread remainder of batter over the top.

Bake for between 45-60 mins [depending on oven]. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes, turn top side up onto wire rcak.

When cold sprinkle with sifted icing sugar and decorate with a few extra berries.

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Homemade strawberry jam with super easy scones [afternoon tea is ready!]

29 Apr

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I adore a tea – be it Devonshire, high or afternoon I think it is all wonderful. I would have been right at home in the Victorian era: nibbling on dainty sandwiches, sweet morsels and pillow soft scones. Ahhh, it is all about the scones. For as much as I adore a freshly made scone I’m not too fond of the mess they make of my bench tops. I’m not a clean freak but nor am I fan of scraping remnants of dough off my countertops.

But every so often the need for scones hits and when it does this easy peasy 3-ingredient recipe is the one I reach for. It is child’s play and produces light, floaty scones with a lovely colour. The recipe has been around forever so I’m not sure who to credit for it.

And what are freshly made scones without a real, fruity strawberry jam? I’d been wanting to make strawberry jam for ages but every time I bought the required two punnets of berries my fruit bat daughters would devour the lot. So last time I saw strawberries on sale I bought three punnets, cut one up for the fruit bat daughters then set about making this jam with fruit bat daughter number one. Having never made any type of jam before I picked an easy recipe from kidspot.com.au that called for it to be made in the microwave. It tasted amazing but I don’t know that it would have been any quicker than using the stovetop recipe. It made a sticky mess of my microwave but beauty is pain…

Miss 6 loved the fact we made & labelled our own jam. A gorgeous vintage label wold have looked waaaaay better than my slapdash attempt but I’ll remember that for next time.

EASY THREE INGREDIENT SCONES:

GATHER:

325g self-raising flour

2/3 cup cold lemonade

2/3 cup thickened cream

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 200C and spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Sift flour into a large bowl. Combine lemonade and cream in a jug and pour to the flour bowl. Gently mix until just combined – it will be very sticky.

Tip onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until about 3cm thick. With floured scone cutters or a glass cut out scones and place side by side on the tray.

You can brush the tops with a smidge of milk if you like but it isn’t absolutely necessary.

Bake for between 12 and 15 minutes/until pale golden. Serve warm with strawberry jam

and cream.

STRAWBERRY JAM

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GATHER:

Two punnets of strawberries, washed, hulled and roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups caster sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

LET’S DO IT:

Put a saucer in freezer [you’ll need this to test the jam later]

Put strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a very large and deep microwave-safe bowl.

Leave for 15 minutes to allow the strawberries to soften.

Place in microwave and cook on high for 4 minutes, stopping every minute to stir the jam to ensure sugar is dissolved.

Microwave a further 25-30 minutes on high, stirring every 5 minutes or until the jam reaches setting point. (To check, place a spoonful of jam on the cold saucer and place it in the freezer for two minutes. Run your finger through the jam and if it stays in two separate portions it is set.)

Leave to cool for five minutes then gently decant into a sterilised glass jar.

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One bowl lemon bundt cream cake

26 Apr

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I have probably previously mentioned my affection for bundt cakes – I believe they are so much more pleasing to the eye than your everyday normal cake shape.

This lemon cream bundt comes, as so many of the recipes on this blog do, courtesy of the fab cookery folk at the Australian Women’s Weekly. This magazine [not a weekly any more] is renowned for their triple-tested recipes and I doubt there is a kitchen in this wide brown land of us that doesn’t have an AWW recipe in its drawers or stuck to the fridge. The recipe appeared in the book called Quick Mix Cakes which I suspect is no longer in print. If you do happen upon a copy I urge you to buy it – every recipe in it is super easy and delicious.

 GATHER:

125g room-temperature butter, diced

2 eggs

1  ½ cups self-raising flour

½ cup sour cream

150g caster sugar

grated rind from two lemons

LET’S GET TO IT

Preheat oven to 170C.

Grease a bundt pan, ensuring you get into all the nooks and crannies. I use non-stick spray and find that it works quite well.

Combine all ingredients into bowl of electric mixer and beat on low until everything is combined.

Increase speed until mixture is smooth and changed in colour.

Spoon the mixture into pan, ensuring you gently push it into the crevices of the design of the pan.

Bake for 40-ish minutes/until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in pan 10 minutes before gently removing to a wire rack.

When cold dust liberally with icing sugar.

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Easy chocolate cake recipe

24 Apr

 

simple chocolate cake

This is a one bowl, super easy, kid-friendly chocolate cake. It isn’t glam and won’t impress baking experts but for morning tea or a fast dessert you can’t beat it. If you can turn on an oven you can make this chocolate cake, which is great served with ice cream, cream or even just a sprinkling of icing sugar on top.

Making it in a ring baking tin makes it look a little bit more fancy than using a round tin. You could fill the berries to serve if you want to up the glam factor.

It is from a book called Quick Mix Cakes by AWW.

GATHER:

125g melted butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cocoa powder [Dutch for preference]

1 cup self-raising flour

3/4 cup caster sugar

dash best vanilla

Easy chocolate cake - The Hungry Mum

LET’S GET TO IT

Preheat oven to 170C, and grease a ring pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Place everything in bowl of electric mixer and beat until smooth and mixture has changed colour.

Pour into pan, bake 35-ish minutes/until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave in tin 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool.

Easy chocolate cake recipe -The Hungry Mum

 

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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 →

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Chocolate ginger cupcakes with rich chocolate glaze

16 Apr

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This recipe is from a book called [take a deep breath] Green & Black’s Organic Ultimate Chocolate Recipes The New Collection. The recipe is ‘the Hummingbird Bakery’s ginger chocolate cupcakes’ and I made these for my mum at Easter, who adores choc ginger. 

GATHER:

100g plain flour

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

140g caster sugar

20g cocoa powder, sifted

40g butter at room temperature

100mL full at milk

1 egg

1 heaped teaspoon powdered ginger 

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line cupcake pan with wrappers. I used a muffin pan and made larger sized cakes.

In an electric mixer combine butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, ginger and cocoa until all mixed together.

Combine milk and egg in a jug, whisk and add to the mixture in two lots. Mix until everything is combined.

Fill wrappers two thirds full and bake for 15-ish mins [for small sized cupcakes] to 20-ish [muffin size].

Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

The book had a choc/ginger icing combination but I used my go to, fool-proof Donna Hay chocolate glaze recipe: mix 1/2 cup of cream with 150g dark chocolate in a small pan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; allow to stand 10 mins until thickened. Pour over a well chiled ckae and tap to remove air bubbles. I usually have a container of this in the fridge and use it for ice cream topping [a few seconds in the microwave makes it gooey and warm], icing for cakes and slices, and eaten by the spoonful…  it is good just to have on hand…

I decorated mine with little edible silver balls because they are pretty. Ginger crystals would have been the logical decoration. 

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Easy home-baked strawberry muffins

14 Apr

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The Hungry Mum family is meeting some friends in the morning for a beachside breakfast BBQ. We thought this mild autumn weather in Sydney would be a perfect time to catchup out of doors. Knowing how ravenous kids can be I baked some strawberry muffins for them to munch on while our breakfast poper is cooking. This recipe, from bestrecipes.com.au, was originally titled ‘Kim’s Moist Muffins.’ It is super easy and failsafe and versatile – everything you want in a muffin receipe [or any recipe, really]. If I knew how to link the site I would but I’m not that talented…

I had three punnets of strawberries in the fridge so I added some of those plus a handful of blueberries that were hanging around. I rounded that out with a pinch of allspice, which is my go to ingredient for all things baked. Kim herself suggested white choc & raspberry but almost anything can be used: mashed banana/sultanas/grated apple…

GATHER:

220g sifted self raising flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

3/4 cup of milk [or buttermik if you have it]

1/4 cup vegetable oil [not olive oil as it is too strong-tasting]

150g added flavours [eg strawberries]

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 170C and line a muffin tin with wrappers.

Place flour and sugar in a large bowl, stir with a wooden spoon.

In a jug place egg, oil and milk, whisk. Add to flour mix and stir until just mixed [do not over mix]

Add in flavours then pour into muffin pans.

Bake 15-20 mins / until golden.

These are fab warm but also can be frozen in a ziplock bag when completely cool.

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