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How to make Donna Hay chocolate candy cane cookies

To me Christmas is all about the baking. Well, that’s not entirely true. There’s also the spirit of the season, the wonderment of the day as seen through children’s eyes etc etc but what really gets me excited, and flicking through cookbooks in anticipation, is the bounty of baking that awaits.

Like lots of people have a plethora of Chrissy events to attend, which means finding new recipes to road test.

I had looked at this recipe for a few years after it appeared in issue 42 [Jan 2009] and decided this was going to be the year I made Donna Hay’s chocolate candy cane cookies. Candy canes, in my books, are ghastly – sticky and fragile and far too sweet. Even my kids’ school has banned them yet here I was, buying and bringing these sugar-packed morsels into my home.

Getting to smash them into smithereens was quite satisfying, though…

If, like me, candy canes aren’t your thing, feel free to omit them and enjoy these chunky, chocky cookies unadorned.

GATHER:

110g softened butter, diced

¾ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon best quality vanilla

1 cup plain flour

¼ cup cocoa, sifted

½ teaspoon bicarb soda

120g dark chocolate, melted

250g dark chocolate, extra, roughly chopped

About 5 candy canes, smashed into little pieces

LET’S GET TO IT:

Preheat oven to 160C and line two baking trays with non-stick paper.

Beat sugar and butter in bowl of electric mixer for 8-10 minutes, until creamy and light.

Add egg, vanilla and beat until combined.

Scrap down sides then add flour, bicarb, and melted chocolate until just combined.

Fold through extra chopped chocolate.

Roll tablespoons [I used heaped teaspoons] into rounds, place on tray and gently flatten. Sprinkle over the chopped candy canes.

Bake 10-15 minutes, depending on size of bickie.

Tags: baking, candy cane, chocolate, Christmas, cookies, Donna Hay, from scratch, recipe

Comments 41 Comments
Categories Biscuits and Cookies, Fast & simple

Chocolate cinnamon cupcakes with salted caramel

18 Nov

My fondness for cinnamon is probably obvious to devotees of this site. I believe it is the ingredient that is the most bewitching in many baked goods. Using a vanilla cupcake recipe from my beloved Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Quick Mix Cakes’ book I played around until I had the perfect marriage of choc, cinnamon, and vanilla – the holy trinity. Feel free to add even more cinnamon for a richer taste.

I blogged the salted caramel sauce a while back. Find the recipe here: https://thehungrymum.com/2012/04/10/nigella-lawsons-fast-and-easy-salted-caramel-sauce/

Gather:

125g butter, chopped, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cup self-raising flour

¼ cup sifted cocoa

1 heaped tablespoon cinnamon

2 eggs

½ cup milk

¾ cup caster sugar [I normally take a few heaped spoonfuls out]

Let’s get to it:

Preheat oven to 180C and line cupcake pan with wrappers.

Beat all ingredients in bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment on low until combined.

Increase speed and beat until batter changes colour and is smooth.

Drop into cases until three quarters full, then bake 15-20 mins [depending on your oven – check at 15 minutes with a skewer].

Turn on wire rack to cool.

When completely cold spread with salted caramel sauce.

Tags: baking, chocolate, cinnamon, cocoa, cupcakes, easy, from scratch, one bowl, recipe, salted caramel

Comments 43 Comments
Categories Cupcakes

Chocolate hot toddy tarts – a warming dessert with whisky

2 Sep

Have I told you about the amazing book Lily Vanilli’s Sweet Tooth? Subtitled ‘recipes and tips from a modern artisan bakery’ it is an incredible collection of fantastical baked goods with gorgeous photos to match. I was sent a review copy in my day job as a journalist and I couldn’t wait to get this book into my kitchen to try out the recipes. If you have a loved one who is into baking, buy them this book. Continue reading →

Tags: alcohol, baked, baking, burnt butter, chocolate, cream, dessert, food, homemade, recipe, tart, whiskey, whisky

Comments 79 Comments
Categories alcohol, Dessert, Tarts and Pies

How to make lemon meringue pie – a recipe

1 Aug

A confession before we continue: I did not make this luscious looking creation. Rather, The Hungry Dad and Miss7 whipped it up for a family lunch at my mum’s house recently. I’m lucky – I married a man who is a great cook and our first born also loves cooking (especially desserts!).

They chose this recipe from my ever-present copy of Australian Women’s Weekly ‘Bake.’

It is no exaggeration to say this pie was the hit of the lunch – everyone was full of compliments for my hubby and daughter. So proud!

GATHER:

½ cup cornflour

1 cup caster sugar

½ cup lemon juice

1 ¼ cups water

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

60g butter, diced

3 eggs, separated

½ cup caster sugar, extra

pastry

1 ½ cups plain flour

1 tablespoon icing sugar

140g cold butter, diced

1 egg yolk

Approx 2 tablespoons iced water

LET’S GET TO IT:

Make pastry:

Process flour, icing sugar and butter until crumbly. Add yolk and enough iced water to process until it all comes together. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge for 30 mins.

Tart:

Grease 24cm round loose-bottomed fluted flan tin. Roll out pastry between sheets of baking paper until large enough to line tin. Carefully ease into pan, using rolling pin as guide. Gently press into base and sides, trim edges, then place in fridge for 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 220C.

Place dough-lined tin on oven tray and line with baking paper, fill with baking weights and bake for 10 minutes. Remove weights and paper and bake another 10 minutes. Cool, turn oven off.

Combine cornflour and sugar in medium pan and slowly stir in juice and water until smooth. Cook, stirring, over high heat until mixture boils and thickens.

Reduce heat and simmer while stirring for one minute.

Remove from heat and stir in rind, butter and yolks. Allow to cool.

Spread filling into case and bake preheat oven to 220C.

Beat egg whites in bowl of electric mixer until soft peaks form and gradually add extra sugar, beating until sugar dissolves (it shouldn’t feel grainy).

Spread meringue mixture on top of tart and bake for 2 minutes / until golden.

Serve cold with cream or ice cream.

Tags: Australian Women's Weekly, baking, egg, lemon, meringue, pie, recipe, tart

Comments 50 Comments
Categories lemon, Uncategorized

Apple surprise bundt cake

8 Jul

It will come as no surprise to Hungry Mum devotees that I adore bundts. In fact you may be heartily sick of me posting about these cakes but I just can’t get enough of their buttery goodness. Continue reading →

Tags: apple, bake, baking, bundt, cake, cinnamon, fast, recipe, simple

Comments 33 Comments
Categories Uncategorized

Brown sugar M&M cookies / biscuits

19 Jun

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.

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

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.

This is Popcorn, my mini schnauzer, hoping she could sample one. #no

Tags: Australian Women's Weekly, bake, bickie, biscuit, brown sugar, cookie, easy, fast, from scratch, home-made, M&Ms, recipe

Comments 40 Comments
Categories Biscuits and Cookies

Donna Hay chocolate coconut mini cheesecake recipe

10 Jun

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 →

Tags: baked, bite-size, cheese cake, cheesecake, chocolate, coconut, dessert, Donna Hay, elegant, from scratch, individual serves, recipe, tea party

Comments 53 Comments
Categories Cakes, cheesecake, Other sweet stuff

Spiced roulade with vanilla buttercream

27 May

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 →

Tags: Alison Thompson, bake, cake, classic, cookbook, from scratch, ginger, recipe

Comments 50 Comments
Categories Cakes, Dessert, recipe

Fresh ginger biscuits / cookies

14 May

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.

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?]

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.

Tags: baking, biscuit, butter, chocolate, cookie, from scratch, ginger, recipe, walnut

Comments 26 Comments
Categories Biscuits and Cookies

Chocolate orange bundt cake

23 Apr

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….