You know those days where you want to eat something sweet, but you want to pretend that you're being healthy? Add dried fruit and oats to it, and eat it in self-righteous glory! These cookies are a bit like fruity Anzac biscuits, and the recipe is pretty damn easy. Nehold!
Sultana Oat Cookies
1 and 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking - you want self-righteous-home-made-muesli type oats)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sultanas
150 g butter (just under half a cup - most sticks of butter in Australia have 50 g markings on the wrappers)
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt (can be omitted)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
In a large bowl mix together flour, oats, sugar, fruit, salt and cinnamon
Put butter, syrup, sodium bicarbonate and 1 tablespoon of water in a small saucepan.
Slowly melt wet ingredients together in the saucepan - it will froth and bubble, which is normal. Do not lick the spoon! The sodium bicarb will make you gag if you do. That stuff is nasty.
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture, and mix until combined. It will seem quite crumbly - that's normal
Place tablespoons of the mixture about 4 cm (1 and 1/2 inch) apart on a lined baking tray amd bake for 15-18 minutes
Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely
These super tasty, easy cookies store well, but they won't hang around long enough for that to be an issue. Enjoy!
Friday, 10 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Level 30 Rolled Sugar Cookies
I found this recipe for rolled sugar cookies when I was looking for a tasty answer to the need for cookies to celebrate the final session of out long-running Dungeons and Dragons game. The makers of this recipe lied. Lied with dirty lies! Don't misunderstand, they are very tasty, but very, very difficult to use as a rolled/cut out cookies. You can see the problem I had when I tried to use this dough to make cookie versions of our might level 30 characters.
That being said, it can be used to make cut out cookies, but not if you are a cookie novice. There is an insane chilling/rolling/chilling/cutting/chilling/removing excess dough/chilling/baking process involved. If you feel that you are not up to a level 30 cut out cookie encounter, this works really well as a drop cookie recipe too.
Level 30 Rolled Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 200 C (375 F)
Cream the butter and sugar together
Add the eggs and milk and mix well
Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon
Form into two disks, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour
(Awesome Baking Fact: chilling cookie dough not only makes the dough easier to work with, but it allows the dough to 'relax', making for more tender/less tough cookies)
Form your cookies (see below) and place on a parchment lined tray 3 cm (1 inch) apart
Bake for 6-8 minutes, until golden at the edges
Cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving to racks to cool completely
Level 1 Cookies
Once chilled, roll dough into walnut-sized balls
Place on tray and flatten slightly
Bake as above
Level 30 Cookies
Working with one disk at a time, roll dough out to about 1 cm (1/4 inch) thick
Place dough on a parchment-lined baking tray and return to the fridge
While this is cooling, repeat with dough until you have 2 or 3 trays covered with dough
Take the first tray and cut the dough into desired shapes, the return to the fridge
Repeat with other trays
Take the first tray and carefully remove excess dough (retain and chill for later) - place tray in the oven and bake as above
Repeat with other trays
Once the cookies are moved to racks, allow trays to cool to room temperature
Repeat with remaining dough
No matter how you make them these cookies can be eaten as is, or covered with your favourite icing mixture.
That being said, it can be used to make cut out cookies, but not if you are a cookie novice. There is an insane chilling/rolling/chilling/cutting/chilling/removing excess dough/chilling/baking process involved. If you feel that you are not up to a level 30 cut out cookie encounter, this works really well as a drop cookie recipe too.
Level 30 Rolled Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 200 C (375 F)
Cream the butter and sugar together
Add the eggs and milk and mix well
Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon
Form into two disks, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour
(Awesome Baking Fact: chilling cookie dough not only makes the dough easier to work with, but it allows the dough to 'relax', making for more tender/less tough cookies)
Form your cookies (see below) and place on a parchment lined tray 3 cm (1 inch) apart
Bake for 6-8 minutes, until golden at the edges
Cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving to racks to cool completely
Level 1 Cookies
Once chilled, roll dough into walnut-sized balls
Place on tray and flatten slightly
Bake as above
Level 30 Cookies
Working with one disk at a time, roll dough out to about 1 cm (1/4 inch) thick
Place dough on a parchment-lined baking tray and return to the fridge
While this is cooling, repeat with dough until you have 2 or 3 trays covered with dough
Take the first tray and cut the dough into desired shapes, the return to the fridge
Repeat with other trays
Take the first tray and carefully remove excess dough (retain and chill for later) - place tray in the oven and bake as above
Repeat with other trays
Once the cookies are moved to racks, allow trays to cool to room temperature
Repeat with remaining dough
No matter how you make them these cookies can be eaten as is, or covered with your favourite icing mixture.
Cookie Dough Not-Quite-Fudge
This recipe was billed as being a fudge, but I have to disagree - it doesn't nearly set as much as a real fudge does, and ends up being soft and yielding even after refridgeration. On the upside, it freezes super well and is nothing short of life-threatening when coated with chocolate. Behold!
Cookie Dough Not-Quite-Fudge
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to use jarred vanilla paste, which is amazing)
2 cups of plain flour
1 can (395 g/14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(Optional: 1 cup mini chocolate chips)
Cream the butter and the sugar with the vanilla until pale and fluffy
While mixing, add half of the flour, then half of the sweetened condensed milk - repeat once the first lot is incorperated
(Fold in chocolate chips, if using)
Spread into a lined 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch x 8 inch) pan, and chill for at least 3 hours
You can eat it straigh from the pan, giggling with glee, but I recommend putting on a pair of disposable gloves and rolling it into walnut-sized balls. These can be frozen for a quick sugary doughy fix, or drizzled in chocolate before stuffing into your gob.
Cookie Dough Not-Quite-Fudge
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to use jarred vanilla paste, which is amazing)
2 cups of plain flour
1 can (395 g/14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
(Optional: 1 cup mini chocolate chips)
Cream the butter and the sugar with the vanilla until pale and fluffy
While mixing, add half of the flour, then half of the sweetened condensed milk - repeat once the first lot is incorperated
(Fold in chocolate chips, if using)
Spread into a lined 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch x 8 inch) pan, and chill for at least 3 hours
You can eat it straigh from the pan, giggling with glee, but I recommend putting on a pair of disposable gloves and rolling it into walnut-sized balls. These can be frozen for a quick sugary doughy fix, or drizzled in chocolate before stuffing into your gob.
Friday, 19 April 2013
Cranberry-Bran Super Muffins
A muffin that's full of bran and yet is tasty and not like eating cardboard?! Madness!
Muffins differ from cupcakes in that they are not... you know... cake. Muffins tend to be coarser in texture, and are far simpler to make that cupcakes. None of this creaming butter and sugar silliness, it's just mix the dry and the wet, and bake. No cupcake cases! Just pure muffin glory!
Cranberry-Bran Super Muffins
1 cup oat bran (OAT bran. Oat bran is tasty - other brans are cardboardy)
1 and 1/2 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (not baking soda)
1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries in water
3/4 cup milk (I use evaporated milk, because I can)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegatable oil (feel free to use 1/2 cup melted butter instead)
Preheat oven to 190 C (370ish F)
Grease a 12-hole muffin tin
Cook the dried cranberries covered in water for 90s in a microwave
Drain the cranberries and put aside
Mix together the dry ingredients (bran, flour, baking powder, sugars)
In a separate container mix together the wet ingredients (milk, egg, oil/butter)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined (over-mixing will cause the muffins to be tough)
Fold through the cranberries
Bake at 190 C for 20-25 minutes
Remove from the oven when the muffins are firm to the touch and lightly browned. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out of the pan, then cool completely on a rack. Eat by the fistful, and pretend that you are being healthy...
Muffins differ from cupcakes in that they are not... you know... cake. Muffins tend to be coarser in texture, and are far simpler to make that cupcakes. None of this creaming butter and sugar silliness, it's just mix the dry and the wet, and bake. No cupcake cases! Just pure muffin glory!
Cranberry-Bran Super Muffins
1 cup oat bran (OAT bran. Oat bran is tasty - other brans are cardboardy)
1 and 1/2 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (not baking soda)
1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup dried cranberries in water
3/4 cup milk (I use evaporated milk, because I can)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegatable oil (feel free to use 1/2 cup melted butter instead)
Preheat oven to 190 C (370ish F)
Grease a 12-hole muffin tin
Cook the dried cranberries covered in water for 90s in a microwave
Drain the cranberries and put aside
Mix together the dry ingredients (bran, flour, baking powder, sugars)
In a separate container mix together the wet ingredients (milk, egg, oil/butter)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined (over-mixing will cause the muffins to be tough)
Fold through the cranberries
Bake at 190 C for 20-25 minutes
Remove from the oven when the muffins are firm to the touch and lightly browned. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out of the pan, then cool completely on a rack. Eat by the fistful, and pretend that you are being healthy...
Super Lazy Cake Batter Candy Bark
Candy bark isn't really much a thing in Australia. Sure, people will recognise it when they see it, but it's not something that the average Australian would eat, let alone make, on a regular basis. Candy bark is basically a base of chocolate with different tasty things sprinkled on it while it's still melty, and maybe a drizzle of a different chocolate over the top, broken into pieces. Low fuss, great results.
This recipe goes against the grain for me, because it uses pre-prepared cake mix. On the other hand, if you want something sweet in half an hour with minimum fuss, this candy bark will sort you out.
Super Lazy Cake Batter Candy Bark
1 cup milk chocolate chips (or dark, depending on what you like most)
3 tablespoons packet vanilla cake mix
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
Line a baking tray with baking parchment
Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-proof bowl, and microwave in 30 s bursts until the chocolate it fully melted.
Handy Tips For Melting Chocolate; check the chocolate every 30 s and stir vigrously - chocolate is very easy to burn. Also, resist the urge to lick the spoon! Adding anything water-based (like saliva) to melted chocolate will cause the chocolate to seize (turn gritty).
Pour melted chocolate out onto prepared tray, and spread out to the edges as evenly as you can
Leave to set for at least 30 minutes
Once the chocolate is set, put your white chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and repeat the melting/stirring procedure until it is all melted an smooth
Add the cake mix and stir briskly to mix through the white chocolate (you want to be pretty quick so that the chocolate won't set)
Pour the white chocolate mix out onto the milk chocolate layer and smooth out into a roughly even layer
(You can add spinkles or hundreds and thousands at this point if you like)
Leave to cool and set completely (30 minutes or so), then break into pieces
And that's it! Sweet, chocolately, cakey goodness. This can be made in bulk by doubling or tripling the ingredients, but I would not recommend it because you will go into sugar shock :)
This recipe goes against the grain for me, because it uses pre-prepared cake mix. On the other hand, if you want something sweet in half an hour with minimum fuss, this candy bark will sort you out.
Super Lazy Cake Batter Candy Bark
1 cup milk chocolate chips (or dark, depending on what you like most)
3 tablespoons packet vanilla cake mix
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
Line a baking tray with baking parchment
Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-proof bowl, and microwave in 30 s bursts until the chocolate it fully melted.
Handy Tips For Melting Chocolate; check the chocolate every 30 s and stir vigrously - chocolate is very easy to burn. Also, resist the urge to lick the spoon! Adding anything water-based (like saliva) to melted chocolate will cause the chocolate to seize (turn gritty).
Pour melted chocolate out onto prepared tray, and spread out to the edges as evenly as you can
Leave to set for at least 30 minutes
Once the chocolate is set, put your white chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and repeat the melting/stirring procedure until it is all melted an smooth
Add the cake mix and stir briskly to mix through the white chocolate (you want to be pretty quick so that the chocolate won't set)
Pour the white chocolate mix out onto the milk chocolate layer and smooth out into a roughly even layer
(You can add spinkles or hundreds and thousands at this point if you like)
Leave to cool and set completely (30 minutes or so), then break into pieces
And that's it! Sweet, chocolately, cakey goodness. This can be made in bulk by doubling or tripling the ingredients, but I would not recommend it because you will go into sugar shock :)
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Sour Cream and Sweet Love Brownies
Sour cream is one of those ingedients in baking that is always unexpected, and yet gives the most fabulous results. I'm planning on trying out some more unusual ingredient tasties (sauerkraut brownies, mayonnaise cake, and the like), but in the meantime I give you an ultra moist and fudgey brownie recipe c/o the wonders of sour cream!
Sour Cream and Sweet Love Brownies
300 g dark chocolate chips
150 g butter
3/4 of a cup white sugar
2 eggs (whisked)
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel chips (or milk chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Line a 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch x 8 inch) pan with baking parchment, leaving an overhang to help lift the brownies from the pan once cooked
Melt the dark chocolate and the butter together over a low heat (or in a microwave), stirring continuously to keep the chocolate from burning, until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate melted
Leave to cool to room temperature
Once cool, add the whisked eggs and the sugar, mixing well to combine
Add the flour and the sour cream and mix until smooth
Fold in chocolate chips, pour into the lined pan, and smooth the top
Bake for 30-45 minutes (until a skewer comes out mostly cream)
Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting
My oven is, at best, cantankerous, so my brownies were super squishy in the middle, but I didn't mind one bit. Share with friends, of scoff the whole tray by yourself. You may die from sugar overdose, but it would be worth it.
Sour Cream and Sweet Love Brownies
300 g dark chocolate chips
150 g butter
3/4 of a cup white sugar
2 eggs (whisked)
1 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel chips (or milk chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Line a 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch x 8 inch) pan with baking parchment, leaving an overhang to help lift the brownies from the pan once cooked
Melt the dark chocolate and the butter together over a low heat (or in a microwave), stirring continuously to keep the chocolate from burning, until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate melted
Leave to cool to room temperature
Once cool, add the whisked eggs and the sugar, mixing well to combine
Add the flour and the sour cream and mix until smooth
Fold in chocolate chips, pour into the lined pan, and smooth the top
Bake for 30-45 minutes (until a skewer comes out mostly cream)
Leave to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting
My oven is, at best, cantankerous, so my brownies were super squishy in the middle, but I didn't mind one bit. Share with friends, of scoff the whole tray by yourself. You may die from sugar overdose, but it would be worth it.
Saturday, 6 April 2013
Death by Diabetes Cookies
Sometimes you just need a cookie that's impossibly sweet and bad for you, but also very simple and low fuss. As it happens, I was in that sort of mood when I found a tin of sweetened condensed milk in my pantry. You know where this is going...
Death by Diabetes Cookies
200 g butter
1/3 cup white sugar
395 g (one small tin) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, if you're feeling frisky)
2 cups self-raising flour
250 g (one cup) dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Cream together the butter and sugar
Mix in the condensed milk until smooth and creamy
Add the salt
Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time
Stir in the chocolate chips
Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly brown at the edges
The dough with be very, very soft and creamy because of the condensed milk, so I'd recommend either a cookie scoop or teaspoons to place small balls of dough on a parchment-lined tray, about 3-5 cm apart - they will spread and puff a little as they cook. Keep an eye on them; because of the high sugar content they can brown super fast. Cool for 5 minutes before trying to shift them to a rack - they will be very soft until they cool, and then they will be quite crisp.
I'm not going to lie, these cookies border on the lethal side of sweet. When first baked the condensed milk taste will be very strong, but the following day the flavours will be blended better. They are super simple, and super tasty!
Just watch out for the diabetes.
Death by Diabetes Cookies
200 g butter
1/3 cup white sugar
395 g (one small tin) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, if you're feeling frisky)
2 cups self-raising flour
250 g (one cup) dark chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F)
Cream together the butter and sugar
Mix in the condensed milk until smooth and creamy
Add the salt
Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time
Stir in the chocolate chips
Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly brown at the edges
The dough with be very, very soft and creamy because of the condensed milk, so I'd recommend either a cookie scoop or teaspoons to place small balls of dough on a parchment-lined tray, about 3-5 cm apart - they will spread and puff a little as they cook. Keep an eye on them; because of the high sugar content they can brown super fast. Cool for 5 minutes before trying to shift them to a rack - they will be very soft until they cool, and then they will be quite crisp.
I'm not going to lie, these cookies border on the lethal side of sweet. When first baked the condensed milk taste will be very strong, but the following day the flavours will be blended better. They are super simple, and super tasty!
Just watch out for the diabetes.
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