Monte Carlos

Sorry no fancy words today, just a recipe.

Monte Carlos

Recipe from Recipes+ May 2009

Ingredients

125g butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1/3 cup custard powder

1/3 cup dessicated coconut

1/4 cup milk

Jam Filling

50g butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Using an electric mixture, beat butter, sugar and essence in a medium bowl until light and creamy.

2. Sift flours and custard powder into butter mixture. Add coconut and milk. Using a round-bladed knife, cut through mixture until well moistened and beginning to clump together. Press dough into ball.

3. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on prepared trays, leaving room for spreading. Using a fork, press tops to flatten to 5cm rounds, then make a cross pattern. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Jam Filling: Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in a small bowl until light and creamy. Add the jam, mix roughly.

Coconut and White Chocolate Cookies

Happy Australia Day! The lamb roast is ready to go in the oven, lamingtons are in production and the cricket is on the TV, what a great way to celebrate being Australian. This year my celebrations are alot quieter than last. I'm spending the day at home alone, just relaxing. I've done a little cooking, but a whole lot more just sitting around in front of the cricket.

These cookies aren't particularly Australian, they were just the flavours I felt like at the time. Similar to the very common white chocolate and macadamia cookies, but a little cheaper (macadamias are so expensive!) They are just sweet enough with a lovely hint of coconut. Great for sharing, I took mine to the 20/20 cricket and snacked on throughout the week. And I got to use these very cute measuring cups I got for christmas. They are very easy to store and have 2/3 and 3/4 cup measurements too, how awesome is that.

Coconut and White Chocolate Cookies

recipe from Technicolor Kitchen

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter

1 cup+ 1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut

2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C; line two large baking sheets with baking paper.

2. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. At low speed, add the plain and self-raising flours and coconut and mix until a soft dough forms. If its too crumble add a little milk at a time. Add the chocolate and mix using a wooden spoon.

3. Mould 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough into balls. Place on prepared sheets, 5cm apart, and press down lightly. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden on the bottom. Allow to cool on baking sheets.

Christmas Cookies

So the other week I blogged about how I would love to be able to give away some cookies and other baked good for christmas. I wasn't feeling too optimistic about it but miracles do happen. I finally got into the kitchen and made cookies, Chirstmas cookies!! then I wrapped, decorated, tagged and delivered this lovely little parcels of joy. I made two varieties, a basic butter cookie cut into stars (The recipe was from the cookie cutter box) and basic shortbread.

It wasn't all success though. As well as the little parcels, I also made a cookie christmas tree. Sure it all went together ok, and looks good. But fast forward a day to when it was supposed to be delivered and its not such a pretty store. It fell apart, and an emergency gift was needed instead. I'll just leave you with pretty pictures and spare you the future horror.

Strawberry Jam Tarts

Ahhh peace and quiet. I'm not sure what I did but I've finally found some quiet time. This weekend has been full of a whole lot of nothing and I'm loving it. Not only does it mean I have a clean house, and I've had time to just be calm it also means I can bake. Oh how great it is to bake without being rushed, no deadlines, no racing out the door before its cooled. I have been waiting for this opportunity to make these beautiful jam tarts. It also meant I got to pull out my mini muffin pan, and that always means good things. These did take me a little time, but only because I only have a 12-hole mini muffin pan, and this makes about 24-30 mini tarts. Otherwise its alot simpler then it looks. Great cookie dough base and simple jam filling. My mind is already full of other possible fillings. Stay tuned for that!!

Strawberry Jam Tarts

Recipe from http://www.evilshenanigans.com/2009/07/strawberry-jam-tarts/

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 cup salted butter (I think I used unsalted and added some salt)

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup strawberry jam, seedless (I ended up using the whole jar)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. In the bowl of a food processor combine the flour, sugar, milk, vanilla and butter. Pulse until the mixture forms a ball.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and form into a log. Divide the log in half and divide each half into 15 pieces.

4. Place a ball of dough in the cup of a mini muffin pan and using a dough tamper or your fingers, press down until the dough reaches the top of the cup.

5. Spoon about one tablespoon of jam into each tart shell, making sure the tart shells are not too full. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tarts are golden and jam is bubbling. Cool in pan for 30 minutes before removing to a rack to cool the rest of the way. You can dust with icing sugar before serving.

Cut-out Cookies

Yes more cookies. But I decided to make these because I wanted to try out the icing. You see I've been working on cake decorating with some of the girls at my church and this week we will be decorating cookies. I was planning on making royal icing but had no eggs (probably should have checked that before I started!) instead I used a simple glaze frosting instead. It turned out pretty good and will be the one I use this week with the girls. The last three weeks we have decorated cupcakes and mini-cakes, and I have learnt that simple is best, master cake decorators they aren't, but they sure are having fun! Next week will be out final week when they decorate their own masterpieces, can't wait to see what they come up with.

More great recipes this week:

• Mint and chocolate has got to be one of my favourite flavour combinations. Try these Homemade Thin Mint Cookies from Bringing Home the Bakin'
• Healthy Chocolate Cake? Well maybe with this Chocolate Carrot Cake from Mochachocolata Rita
• Coconut and Lime has a great recipe for Homemade Sno-balls
• At the Bakers Bench needs to be congratulated for the amazing effort put into this Real Coconut Cake. Well Done!
• And who does love a surprise? Let's Get Stupid Together gives everyone a surprise with these Surprise Muffins

Cut-out Cookies

Recipe from taste.com.au

Ingredients

125g butter, room temperature

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup custard powder

Frosting

1 cup icing sugar

1 tsp soft butter or margarine

1-2 tablespoon milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

2. Use and electric beater to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and custard powder.

3. Press the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 3o minutes to rest.

4. Divide the dough into manageable portions. Roll out one portion on a sheet of baking paper to about 1cm thick. Use cutters to cut shapes and place on trays.

5. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool for 5 minutes on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Frosting: Mix ingredients together, slowly adding milk until a smooth spreadable consistency is reached.

Chocolate Roll-out Cookies

I made it back into the kitchen! And what a great time I had. I spent about 6 hours in the kitchen on Saturday and it was excellent. The huge pile of dishes that is still sitting there isn't so great, but worth it. I had a friend coming over for dinner that night so as per her request I made lasagne and her all-time favourite dessert, tiramisu. I also whipped up some cupcakes and these cookies. I recently 'borrowed' my mothers 40 year-old rolling pin and put it to good use with these cookies. My rolling skills need a little work but I'm ready to work on it if I keep getting stuff like this made! Simple chocolate cookies which I decorated with white, milk and dark chocolate as well as hundreds and thousands. The aim was that they would go to an ice hockey game I was going to (yes, ice hockey in Australia!) but they were being eaten before I got out of the house, so cupcakes went to the game instead (I'll try and get that recipe up sometime this week). The chocolate was easy to apply to the cookies, I dipped them in as well as spread with a spatula and both techniques worked well. Let your creativity run with these, and use up any leftover chocolate you might have.

A few recipes from other blogs to check out:

• Who doesn't love brownies. Try Fudgy Mocha-Toffee Browies from La Cuisine de Helene
• Picky Cook has Raspberry-topped Lemon Muffins
• If its giant its got to be good right? Culinary Concoctions by Peabody has Giant Ginger Cookies
• And Pecan Pie Cookies can be found at Elizabeth's Edible Experience

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies

Recipe from Australian Women's Weekly Cookies

Ingredients

125g butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

chocolate and hundreds and thousands to decorate

Method

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Sift dry ingredients, in two batches.

2. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth; roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and oven trays; line with baking paper.

4. Using 5cm round cutters, cut rounds from dough. Place on oven trays.

5. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

6. Spread tops of cookies with chocolate, sprinkle with hundreds and thousands. Set at room temperature.

Cookie Slice (aka Pioneer Woman's 'Spreads' Cookies)

Yep late again. Maybe I should just make Wednesday posts permanent!  A really quick recipe this week. I found this on Pioneer Woman and really wasn't sure what they would turn out like. They are a great snack to keep on hand, just like a regular cookie but much quicker to make because you don't have to worry about scooping individual cookies, just spread the dough to make a giant cookie and slice it up after spreading it with chocolate.  

A quick list of recipes to check out. Sorry no descriptions this week but they all look great!

• Gooey Chocolate Toffee Cookies from Delish
• Crumpets from Pham Fatale
• Apple Crumble Custard Creams from Katie Cakes
• Apple Crumble Slice from Spicy Icecream
• Banana Bread Cake Pops (Check these out!!) from Natalie's Killer Cuisine

Cookie Slice (Pioneer Women's 'Spreads' Cookies)

Recipe from Pioneer Women

Ingredients

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup margarine (I used butter)

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 to 8 ounces chocolate chipis (I used choc melts)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. 

2. Mix together brown sugar and margarine. Add egg and mix together. Add flour, salt and vanilla and mix together well.

3. Spread dough onto cookie sheet to a thickness of 1/4 to 1/2-inch. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until slightly brown.

4. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top. Return to over for 1 minute. Remove and spread melted chips over the top.  (I had a little trouble with this so just melted chocolate and poured and spread it over the cookies) Cut into squares.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies have never been my strong point. I mean these come out ok but I'm never quite happy with them. I think its because I like my cookies small and crunchy. I thought this recipe would be just what I was after, but not quite. Close though. I guess I'll just keep looking for the perfect recipe. This recipe is still worth trying if you are looking for a good soft cookie recipe with loads of choc chips.

Get the Chocolate Chip Overload Cookies recipe from Noble Pig

And some other great recipes to try out:

• Let Her Bake Cake shares some Canadian Traditions and these Butter Tarts
• A crumble top makes everything better. Try these Crumble Top Muffins from La Table de Nana
• Coffee and Vanilla has a great looking and I'm sure great tasting Vanilla Buttercream and Lemon Cheese Layer Cake Infused with Lemon Grass Tea
• Try this Chocolate Chiffon Cake at Little House
• Ice cream sandwich cookies are the best! Try Vanilla Gelato with Chocolate Malt Cookies from Lisa is Cooking

Thumbprint Cookies

I had my last day of work on Friday. I actually finished a few hours earlier then expected. So I baked cookies.  I hadn't been shopping in a while so chose these cookies completely based on the ingredients. In fact I had to substitute the freckles for plain old chocolate melts and threw on some sprinkles.  While they satisfied my baking needs, they did cause some fighting when people missed out! I had to promise to bake more cookies over the weekend to satisfy everyone. Just as well I was in the mood (even baked some muffins too!)

Check out these great recipes from the week

• I'm not really sure what a Whoopie Pie is but they have intrigued me for a while. Check out these Boston Cream Whoopie Pies at Bitter Sweet
• Cinnamon is one of my favourite flavours. A nice Cinnamon Sugar Scone is at Baked Perfection
• What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen? has some Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
• I love this idea. So simple but looks great. Check out the Quick and Easy Birthday Cake at Chef Paige
• I love pop-tarts. Australia doesn't have pop-tarts. Problem. Solution: Homemade Pop-tarts from The Curious Blogquat.

Thumbprint Cookies

Recipe from Taste.com.au 

Ingredients

180g unsalted butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1 1/2 cups plain flour

Chocolate melts

sprinkles

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat well.

3. Stir in the flours and mix to from a dough. Roll 1 tablespoon of the dough into a ball and flatten onto the baking tray. Press your thumb into the centre of the dough to make a hole. Repeat with the remaining dough.

4. Press the chocolate freckle into each hole and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 

5. Set aside on wire rack to cool. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I've lost my baking rhythm. I'm in a funk. Its been one disaster after another.  These cookies, they look great and I'm sure they are.  But when i made them, well I'm not sure what happened exactly.  All i know is that the bottoms were burning, and the middle was raw.  First of all I left out half of the flour mixture and the first batch in the oven were flat, very flat.  Then I realised my mistake, added the rest of the flour, and still not a great success.  Maybe someone can give it a try and let me know.  As for me, I think I'm going back to baking basics til I have some more success.

• I'm loving sweet potato at the moment so can't wait to try the Sweet Potato Bomboloni at Simplicious
• Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls?  Try the Fastest Cinnamon Rolls at Don't Forget Delicious
• The Bitten Word (again why have I not highlighted these guys before?!) has the most amazing Tres Cocoas Leches Cake
• Dirty Kitchen Secrets shares with us Gateau ZaZa
• And a cake I have been wanting to try out, Coca Cola Cake at Brownies for Dinner

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipes from Taste and Tell

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 3/4 cups rolled old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

170g softened unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe banana

1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, oats, bicarb soda, cinnamon and salt together. In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. 

3. Add half the flour mixture, mix, and then add the banana and mix. Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips.

4. Drop tablespoon-sized balls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating halfway through.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Wow, I'm finally online using my own internet! Can you believe it has taken 6 WEEKS and 4 technicians to get my internet working.  It has been a tough ride, with many  frustrating conversations to call centers in India, New Zealand and across Australia.  But I move past it and on to the blogging.  Oh how I have missed it.  So many recipes to share.  I start with these lovely cookies.

I was in the mood for baking and this was one of the few recipes I had all the ingredients on hand.  They are nice and crispy and crumbly with a hint of peanut butter taste alongside the chocolate.  My co-workers and taste testers were impressed.

** Sunday Baking round-up will resume tomorrow and sometime this week I will post all the round-ups from the weeks I missed!**

Ingredients

Recipe from cadbury

125g butter

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Cream butter, peanut butter and sugar together until light in colour.

2. Sift the dry ingredients and add. Mix well to form a dough.

3. Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls. Place on greased or lined baking trays. Flatten each ball slightly with your hand or the back of a fork.

4. Bake for 20 minutes.

5. Dust the discuits with a little caster sugar on their removal from the oven. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the tray.

ANZAC Biscuits

Yesterday I was talking about traditions and how they get started. ANZAC biscuits are an Australian tradition with an interesting history. The most common theory as to their origin is that they were made by women in Australia during WW1 to send to the Australian soldiers overseas. They could survive the often long journey and are made from simple ingredients. They are a delicious biscuit made from oats, maple syrup, coconut and some other baking staples. Most are crunchy (like this recipe here) but chewy varieties are available.


An interesting fact too, is that they legally cannot be called ANZAC cookies. In fact Subway Restaurant over here in Australia removed their ANZAC 'cookies' from the menu after getting into some legal trouble with the Department of Veteran Affairs. Read more about ANZAC biscuits here and here


And now to Sunday Baking, my weekly round-up of baking in the blog world.

• Sunday Baker as some great Cheddar Snack Sticks
  
• There is a beautiful Raspberry Roulade at Bunny's Warm Oven
  
• Confections of a Foodie Bride has a sweet looking Strawberry Cake
  
• Joy the Baker shows us here Lemon Souffle Pudding
  
• And lastly check out Baked Alaska at Dine and Dish
  

ANZAC Biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup desiccated coconut

125g butter, cubed

1/4 cup golden syrup (I'm told its similar to dark corn syrup)

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180C/350F. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar, oats and coconut and make a well in the centre.

3. Put the butter and golden syrup together in a small saucepan and stir over low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat. Dissolve the bicarb in 1 tablespoon boiling water and add immediately to the butter mixture. It will foam up instantly. Pour into the well in the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

4. Drop level tablespoons of mixture onto the trays, allowing room for spreading. Gently flatten each biscuit with your fingertips. Bake for 20 minutes, or until just browned, leave on the tray to cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies for Christmas - Shortbread and Chocolate Snowballs

Its baking Sunday again and I attempeted three cookie recipes to take to work with me tomorrow. Only two made it to the end and they turned out pretty good. The disaster recipe was honey ginger buttons. The honey/golden syrup mixture over boiled and spilt all over the oven, and seeing as a finished off the honey to make it that was the end of that recipe. 

The messy disaster!

I carried on and made some lovely shortbread and chocolate snowballs with not very much snow. Very fitting for the climate I think. I little un-imaginative packaging and its ready for work. Well half of it anyway, kept some for home too!

Basic Shortbread

Not sure where I got this recipe but shortbread is a classic

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

1 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cornflour

Basic topping

1 eggwhite, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons white sugar

Method

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper. 

2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until pale. Add flour and cornflour. Stir to combine. Turn onto a floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. 

3. Gently press dough into the desired shape (I made a rectangle) until about 1.5cm thick.

4. Use a knife ti mark into individual biscuits. Do not cut all the way through. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until firm. Preheat oven to 160oC. 

5. Make topping. Brush each shortbread with egg white. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool completely on tray. Use a Sharp knife to cut right through markings. Serve. 

Chocolate Snowballs

Recipe from delicious magazine (link)

This recipe is very very rich. One cookie is more then enough for even the serious chocoholic!

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, chopped

100g unsalted butter, chopped

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup icing sugar

Method

1. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. 

2. Place the dark chocolate and chopped butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water over low heat. Stir mixture until melted and smooth, then remove the bowl from the heat and stand for 5 minutes to cool. 

3. Using a wooden spoon, stir caster sugar into chocolate until dissolved. Gradually add eggs, stirring until well combined. Add vanilla, flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix until a smooth dough. Cover and chill for no more than 30 minutes to firm. 

4. Use hands to roll heaped teaspoons (2 tablespoons as in original recipe makes HUGE cookies) of the dough into a ball. Sift the icing sugar into a dish, then dip each ball into the dish and dust heavily in icing sugar (I wasn't heavy enough) and place on prepared trays about 2cm apart. Bake the snowballs for 10-12 minutes until firm to the couch. Cool on the trays. 

Unplanned cookies - but still so good! (Jam Drops)

So Sunday is my regular baking day. I had planned on baking mini brownie bites or ginger buttons but discovered I was missing some ingredients. I considered walking to the shops to get the stuff I needed, but well just couldn't be bothered, and then it started to rain, so that was settled. Instead I had a quick look through my recipe collection and found this recipe for jam drops that i hadn't tried before and all the ingredients were in the house. Perfect! They turned out pretty good, or at least thats the impression i got from the 10 my dad ate all at once!  Enjoy. 

The recipe is from The Essential Baking Cookbook.  

Jam Drops

Ingredients

80g unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup self-raising flour

1/3 cup custard powder

1/3 cup raspberry jam

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180oC, Line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a small bowl. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the sifted flour and custard powder and mix to form a soft dough. Roll heaped teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on the trays. Make an indentation in each ball using the end of a wooden spoon. Fill each hold with a little jam. Bake for 15 minutes, cool slightly on trays, then transfer to wire rack to cool. 

Makes 32