World Peace Cookies

It's been a while, my friends; but here I am again.  I have delicious cookies for you all this time!

These cookies, rightly named 'World Peace Cookies' are absolutely amazing - they have a rich, chocolatey, slightly salty taste and a delightful, slightly crunchy - slightly soft - slightly chewy texture.
I usually make a double batch of these, because more cookies are better.  And with the help of my brother, half of them end up disappearing as soon as they're baked.  Also, there are no eggs in the dough, so feel free to eat as much unbaked-cookie-goodness as you like!

Recipe Adapted From: Dorie Greenspan via Confessions of a Bake-A-Holic
Ingredients
143g butter
124g brown sugar
125g white sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
1 tsp salt (sea salt is recommended - add less or more depending on how salty you want the biscuits to be)
142g dark chocolate chips OR chopped chocolate chunks

194g flour

33g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Method

1. Beat the butter until it's soft and fluffy.  Since I'm used to margarine, if I'm planning to make something using real butter (like these cookies) I usually leave a block out on the kitchen bench overnight so it gets soft; it's very annoying to try and beat cold butter into submission.

2. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla essence and salt and beat until fluffy and light.

3. Add the flour, cocoa and baking soda.  Mix these dry ingredients into the batter.
If you're not using an electric mixer (e.g. a KitchenAid) for this, it's best to sift the cocoa powder so you don't get unmixed clumps of powder in your baked biscuits.

4. Mix in the chocolate chips.  Some kneading may be required to get the dough to come together.  Letting the KitchenAid work its magic was successful for me.

5. Divide the dough into a number of bits (if you're making a single batch, divide in half or in quarters if you're making a double batch).  Roll these blobs into nice, rounded logs and wrap them in cling wrap.  I don't measure the length of my logs, but 3.8cm/1.5 inches is suggested.

6. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours.  When you're about ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 160 degrees C/325 F.

7. Cut the logs into 1 - 1.5cm rounds and place them on baking trays lined with baking paper/silicone mats or whatever you use.  Make sure there's quite a bit of space between them, they do spread a bit.  If your rounds are falling apart, just squish them back together.

Remember to eat all the off-cuts!

8. Bake for 11 - 12 minutes in the preheated oven.  The cookies will look cracked on the top, but they should still be soft to the touch.

9. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.  Or you could just eat them, because they're amazing when they're warm!

Lemon Bars

These lemon bars are tangy, sweet and very easy to make.  When baked, the slice forms 3 layers - a soft biscuity base, a gooey lemony middle and a soft, slightly crunchy cake topping.  The recipe here is doubled from that in the cookbook - I found that a single amount of topping didn't give enough lemony-ness for my liking.

Recipe Adapted From: The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander

Ingredients - base (17 x 26 cm (6.5 x 10 inch) baking tin)

150g flour

4 tbsp caster sugar

130g cold butter

Ingredients - topping

4 eggs

500g caster sugar

2/3 cup lemon juice

Zest of one lemon

6 tbsp flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 C (320 F).  Line a 17 x 26 cm (6.5 x 10 inch) tin with baking paper.

2. Make the base first.  Using a food processor, combine the flour and caster sugar.

3. Cut the cold butter into rough cubish bits, not too big.

4. Whizz the butter into the flour and sugar until combined.  If it looks crumbly, keep processing it and it should come together - if not, add a little more butter.

5. Press the dough into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

6. While the base is cooking, whisk eggs and sugar until well mixed.  You don't need to beat the mixture, so I do it by hand.

7. Zest the lemon and add it to the egg mixture, then juice the lemon.

8. Strain the pips out of the lemon juice (using some pulp is OK, it adds flavour) and if there isn't enough, juice another lemon or add bottled lemon juice.  Add the juice to the egg mixture and stir it in until well combined.

9. Sift in the flour and whisk gently to combine.

10. When the base is done, remove it from the oven and reset the heat to 150 C (302 F).  Pour the topping onto the base, while the base is hot, and bake for about 35 minutes or until the top is golden.  It should be a little springy to touch, but if you poke it too hard it will crack!

11. Cool completely before cutting the lemon bars into the size slices of your choice.  I usually cut them into bars about 2.5cm x 6cm.  If desired, dust the finished bars with icing sugar.

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

These cookies are probably some of the most delicious things on the planet, and are incredibly simple to make.  They're like brownies, except crunchier on the edges, filled with chocolate chips, even fudgier (le gasp!) and much easier to eat.  If you are in need of a chocolate hit or just something to cheer you up, make them.  You won't be disappointed.

Recipe Adapted From: Handle the Heat
Ingredients
280g dark chocolate (to melt)
90g butter/margarine
3 eggs
250g sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
75g flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter/margarine)
185g chocolate chips


Method
1. Melt the 280g dark chocolate with the butter and stir until smooth.  Set aside to cool.


2. Whip eggs and sugar until thick and pale; it should take about 2 minutes.

3. Stir in the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate mixture.

4. Fold the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into the chocolate mixture.  It's best to sift the cocoa powder, otherwise you'll end up with huge lumps of powder in your cookies.


5. Fold in the chocolate chips.


6. Cover the dough and leave it in the fridge to chill for an hour or overnight.


7. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 F).


8. Roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place onto a baking sheet with a fair amount of space in between.  They spread quite a bit.

9. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.


10. Allow the cookies to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.  Alternatively, you could just eat them all while the choc chips are still melty.  Your call.

Enjoy!

Marbled Blueberry Cake

*flails wildly*

I'm back, and I have cake this time.  A delicious, swirly blueberry vanilla cake, which is delightful when consumed warm out of the oven.  It's pretty, too!

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from: Homestyle Cookies, Muffins and Cakes

Ingredients (20 cm (8 inch) cake)

1 tbsp white sugar

195g fresh or thawed frozen blueberries

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

125g butter

165g self-raising flour

125g caster sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. If using frozen blueberries, weigh out 195g and leave them out to defrost.  Leave the eggs out to warm up too.

2. When the blueberries are thawed, preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 F).

3. Grease and line a 20cm (8 inch) diameter round cake tin.

4. Place the white sugar and half (approx. 95g) of the blueberries into a small saucepan.  Stir over a medium heat until the blueberry juice begins to run.

5. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining blueberries.

6. Beat the eggs lightly then add the vanilla and butter, beat well.  Mine looked terrible for ages (probably because the eggs were cold) but suddenly conglomerated.  If yours looks like mine did, do not despair!  Just keep beating them.

7. Mix the self raising flour and caster sugar.  Make a well in the centre and pour the egg mixture in.  Fold the two mixtures together.

8. Transfer 3/4 cup of the cake batter into the blueberry saucepan.  Mix the cake batter into the blueberry mixture until combined.

9. Drop random spoonfuls of blueberry and vanilla batter into the prepared cake tin.  Try to alternate white and blue.

10. Use a knife or skewer to swirl the batter and create a marbled effect.  Just do it gently - if you over mix then it'll turn out all blended instead of swirled.

11. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top.

12. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

13. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin.  

14. Serve the cake warm and dusted with icing sugar.

There's Always Time for Love {Flooded Almond Cinnamon Biscuits & Chocolate Biscuits}

Here I am again, surfacing from the bottomless sea of Year 11 homework.


Well, no, I haven't really surfaced yet - I'm just floundering on the surface for a moment before I sink back under.


But don't mind my maths homework lurking in the corner, my friends.  Instead, take a look to the right of your screen and you'll see a 'World's Greatest Shave' button.  This button will take you to my fundraising page.


I am supporting the Leukaemia Foundation this year and I just shaved my head last weekend.  Yes, I am a teenage girl and yes, shaving off all my hair was a bit hard - but it's for a good cause and I'm proud of my efforts.  The purpose of the Shave for a Cure, if you haven't heard of it, is to raise awareness about leukaemia and for participants to have a small feel for the side effects of leukaemia treatment (losing your hair).


It would be greatly appreciated if you would sponsor me, by donating as little or as much as you can at my sponsorship page.  The money goes towards improving leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma treatment, finding cures as well as supporting leukaemia patients and their families.  I've raised over $2500 online and in cash so far.
All donations are appreciated!

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Happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone!

This year, to give to my friends and family, I made Almond Cinnamon Biscuits and Chocolate Biscuits then flooded them in pink and white.  Though the rolling out of dough, cutting, refrigerating and transferring can be tedious, I loved icing them and seeing them all on their trays looking pretty.

My friends loved them and so did my Great-Grandfather!

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Recipes adapted from: Homestyle Cookies, Muffins and Cakes

Almond Cinnamon Biscuits

These were...annoying to make.  The dough was super sticky and didn't really taste that good (so I didn't want to snack on it much), and cutting out the biscuit shapes was lame because the dough stuck to the cookie cutters.  The resulting cookie was slightly crunchy and very chewy, but they had a very nice almond-cinnamon taste.


Ingredients
200g blanched almonds (or 200g almond meal)
90g caster sugar
40g icing sugar
3 tsp ground cinnamon
100g flour (plus a lot more for dusting and kneading)
30g self-raising flour
2 egg whites


Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (300 F)


2. Place the almonds, sugars, cinnamon and flours into a food processor.

3. Process for 30 seconds or until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

4. Add the egg whites and process for 30 seconds, or until a soft, sticky dough forms.  Add some more flour a little bit at a time if the dough is too sticky.

5. Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead, adding flour as you go until the dough is easily handle-able.  Make sure your work surface has quite a bit of flour on it - if there's an un-floured patch, the dough will stick.

6. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick.  I found it very difficult to roll out.

7. Cut the rolled out dough into whatever shape you want using strong cookie cutters.  I made little stars and love hearts.

8. Place the cut out cookies onto a baking tray covered with baking paper (or a silicon mat).

Bake for 12 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly browned.


9. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely.


10. Ice with royal icing.

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Basic Chocolate Biscuits with Royal Icing

These chocolate biscuits are very chocolatey, dark and rich.  They have a great shortbread texture and royal icing goes on them very well.

Ingredients

125g butter/margarine

90g icing sugar (use more if you want a sweeter biscuit)

1 egg

200g plain flour

1 tbsp corn flour

4 tbsp cocoa

100g dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 F)

2. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.

3. Beat the butter and icing sugar until light and creamy.

4. Add the egg and beat until smooth.  My egg was cold when I added it so it took a while for the mixture to conglomerate - if it won't come together, just keep beating.  Patience, my young apprentice.

5. Add the flour, corn flour and sifted cocoa and mix until well combined.

6. Mix in the chocolate.

7. Wrap the dough in clingwrap and refrigerate.

8. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until about 5 mm thick.

9. Cut the dough into shapes using cookie cutters.  Peel some of the dough away from the outsides of the cut shapes and freeze for a few minutes.  I find that freezing the dough makes it much easier to transfer to baking trays.

10. Place the cookie shapes on baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes, or until golden.  (You can't really tell with these cookies because they're so dark in the first place, so just go with the time)

11. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely.

12. Ice with royal icing.

I left some of the dough white (just didn't add the cocoa and chocolate).  The dark brown and white makes for pretty biscuits.

Lots of love.