Sunday Baking - Cornflake Biscuits

Does anyone else remember these fondly from their childhood? They were always a favourite of mine and now with young kids, they are perfect for lunchbox treats or a rainy day baking project.

You can experiment with different add-ins. I generally use sultanas but any dried fruit would work, as would chocolate chips or nuts. Just go crazy!

Cornflake Biscuits

125g softened butter

1/3 cup raw sugar

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour

1 tbs milk

1 ts vanilla extract

1/2 cup sultanas or chocolate chips

2 cups cornflakes, lightly crushed

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (160 degrees fan-forced). Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until creamy. Sift in the flour, add the milk and mix until the mixture forms a dough. Add the sultanas/choc chips and 1 cup of the cornflakes and fold together until well combined.

Place remaining 1 cup of cornflakes into a bowl. Roll tablespoons of mixture into the cornflakes then place onto baking trays, allowing some room for spreading. Press each biscuit down with the back of a fork. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on the trays for 5 minutes before carefully placing them on a wire rack to cool. Makes approx 22.

Sunday Baking - Lunchbox Biscuits

Is it just me or does this picture look like it came straight out of a 1970s Woman's Weekly magazine?? Not quite sure how I managed that but conveniently this is a pretty retro recipe so perhaps it was meant to be.

These are simply called Lunchbox Cookies and everyone seems to have their own variation. I found this one online at Best Recipes and made a few changes. These are wonderful warm from the oven but hubby has been taking a few from the freezer every day to have with his morning coffee at work and really enjoyed them.

Lunchbox Cookies

Very slightly adapted from Best Recipes

1 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup milk powder

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup dried dates, chopped

1/4 cup sugar

150g melted butter

1 egg, beaten

1 ts cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and beaten egg and mix well to combine. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on a lined baking tray, allowing some room for spreading. Flatten each biscuit with a fork.  Bake for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on tray for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Makes approx 18.

I'm still here! ... and gluten free chocolate chip cookies

Wow, so it's been a whole 5 months since my last post. I have to say 2011 has completely gotten away from me and now it's nearly Christmas! After a few years of regular baking and blogging I guess I just needed a break. I know my waistline and bank account did too! But with TWD soon coming to an end it's definitely time I checked back into the bloggy world.

We've had a few health hiccups this year and a forray into food intolerances. The boys and I have all seen an allergist and had skin prick tests done. The boys were all clear (which is good and not so good since I am convinced that Oscar has a few food sensitivies that maybe will never show up on a test) and I am only allergic to dust, pollen and cats.

Regardless I am baking with a few more alternative ingredients and trying out some gluten-free and lactose-free products. I made these chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago and they were absolutely to die for! Hubby had no idea they were gluten free until I told him and honestly they disappeared so fast I had to grab a photo of the lowly last one. Enjoy!


Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from a recipe on Nellbe's Gluten Free Kitchen Table

115g melted butter, cooled
1 egg
1 ts vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat over to 180 degrees C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Whisk together melted butter with egg and vanilla extract until combined. Combine gluten free flour, sugar and choc bits in a large mixing bowl. Add butter mixture and mix well. Press mixture, 1 tbsp at a time, into balls. Place on tray and allow room for spreading. Press each cookie down slightly and cook 12-15 mins until golden. Cool on trays for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

These were fabulous warm out of the oven. Once cooled they settled into crispy-around-the-edges-but-still-chewy-in-the-middle deliciousness.

Next post - Charlie turns 1!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

This week Caroline and Claire of Bake With Us chose Dorie's Chocolate Oatmeal Drops. I really love this sort of cookie. There's no creaming butter, you don't have to wait for the dough to chill and you don't have to roll them out. Just melt, mix, drop, bake and eat!

I made just 1/4 of the recipe and got 10 large cookies. They disappeared in record time so I will definitely have to make another batch sometime soon. Next time I will leave a little more space between them on the tray though, these spread like crazy.

The taste test ...

I don't think I've ever really had oats in a chocolate cookie before but it was delicious. I upped the wholegrain aspect by using wholemeal flour which made me feel a bit better about scoffing down 3 of them for lunch! These were really tasty everyday cookies and I will be making them again.

Make sure you check out Bake With Us for the recipe as well as the other TWD bakers here.

Late TWD - Midnight Crackles

A belated happy new year to everyone! That's if there's anyone around after my extended absence. Hard to believe but Charlie is now over 9 weeks old and life with 2 kids under 2 is definitely keeping me busy. I am really missing baking and have a lot of catching up to do both in terms of recipes and reading my favourite blogs.

I actually did have this recipe made and photographed ready for the new year but a computer/camera compatability issue and lack of time means it is now 2 weeks late. Oh well.

So, Midnight Crackles. This is TWD's anniversary recipe chosen by Laurie and Jules. Can you believe it's been 3 years? Happy anniversary everyone!

These are basically a deep, dark chocolate biscuit with a little hint of spice. I baked just 1/4 of the recipe and they disappeared in record time! I am still figuring out our temperamental new oven so they were a smidge overbaked. I still have 1/4 of the dough stashed in the freezer and will definitely underbake these to ensure a yummy, fudgy centre.

I know this is short but I will finish with a few favourite pics of my boys from the holidays. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Here's to a fabulous 2011 for us all! :-)

PS. Since I began this post last week (everything happens in it's own time these days), my home city of Brisbane has been devastated by floods. At last count 16 lives lost and countless thousands who have lost their homes and possessions. We are exceedingly lucky on this side of town but spent a few worried nights as the river began to peak. I had a bag packed for the boys just in case we needed to leave quickly but in the end it was ok. My thoughts and prayers are with all who were affected. If anyone cares to make a donation to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal you can do so here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Choc Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

This week Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine chose Dorie's Peanut Butter Crisscrosses. I've made these before actually (funnily enough when I was pregnant last time) so for yet another week I made the variation.

Unfortunately, something went a little awry and these were nothing like what they were supposed to be. Dorie's photo (and my last attempt) were these big, chewy cookies you could really sink your teeth into. My choc version made flat, soft and cakey cookie pancakes.

Admittedly I left out the peanuts which would have given them some more substance but the cookie mix itself was sooooo soft. I chilled the dough before baking but it didn't seem to help.

They still tasted pretty good and there aren't many left. But I can't work out whether that's because they were nice or because at 30 weeks pregnant I am gimme! gimme! gimme! when it comes to any sort of bakery product and therefore not a good judge.

So make sure you check out Jasmine's blog for the recipe and the other TWD bakers here. I'm sure they had much more success than I did!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Gingered Carrot Cookies

After all the brownies and blondies we've had, finally a cookie for us redheads! Dorie says she created these cookies by accident but I say making carrot cake in cookie form is pure genius :)

While carrot cake can be a stodgy, oily disaster, these were fantastic! Plus they were a breeze to make and we had everything in the pantry already which I love. I used 1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice) in addition to the ginger which gave them a lovely warmth and perfectly complemented the nuts and raisins.

I only made half a batch and got 16 decent sized cookies. I also whipped up a quick cream cheese icing for some while the rest of the batch ended up in the freezer.

The taste test ...

Umm, it's carrot cake in cookie form so of course they were tasty! They're not special occasion cookies but for everyday I would definitely make them again. That's really all you need to know.

Thanks to Natalia of gatti fili e farina for this week's pick! You can find the recipe on her blog.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Wow, 2 posts in 2 days! What is the world coming to?? Continuing yesterday's theme of wheat and dairy free treats, I made these Oatmeal Raisin Cookies a while back. Oscar is now at the age where it's really difficult to eat in front of him ie. he throws a bit of a tantrum if he can't have a bite! So having something safe for him to eat as well makes life a little easier.

Rather than start from scratch I adapted the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe on Simply Recipes here. The changes I made were:

• swapped out the wheat flour for a 50:50 blend of white and wholemeal spelt flours along with a pinch of xanthum gum
• used a dairy free spread instead of butter
• left out the nuts
• cut back on the sugar (I used just 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 cup white and they were still really sweet)

The taste test ...

Chewy, spicy, sweet and completely addictive! I got 24 huge cookies and they make a pretty substantial snack. I froze most of the batch and they are delicious straight from the freezer. These are a definite winner and will be made again and again.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Banana Coconut Icecream Pie

This week Spike of Spike.Bakes chose Dorie's Banana Coconut Icecream Pie and I have to admit, I really wasn't sure about this one! Even after reading the recipe I had no idea whether this was something I would enjoy or not. Still, I ploughed on but couldn't resist making a few changes.

My version has a plain shortbread crust (no coconut) and 2 layers of filling instead of one. I didn't want to mess up the creamy perfection of the chocolate ice-cream so I made a separate banana layer using some of my stash of frozen bananas whizzed up with a teaspoon of vanilla essence and some heavy cream. I then sprinkled some toasted shredded coconut on top.

The taste test ...

Not bad! Probably not something I would make again but banana and chocolate are always a great combination. I'm glad I didn't use any rum in the filling or coconut in the base. The flavours here were just right for us.

Thanks for an interesting pick, Spike! You can find the original recipe at Spike.Bakes under today's date.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

I do love recipes with jam. My grandmother used to make the BEST jam tarts with beautiful homemade shortcrust pastry. I would always get the leftover scraps of pastry shaped into a cookie with a big dollop of jam in the middle.

Here in Australia we'd call these jam drops, not thumbprints, but whatever you call them they rock! Buttery, nutty, jammy and just plain delicious.

I tweaked the recipe slightly using ground pistachios instead of hazelnuts, so my cookies had a lovely green tint. I also thought it was the perfect opportunity to open my jar of Maggie Beer's Burnt Fig Jam. This stuff is thick and as black as tar but the flavour? Out of this world. Burning the jam really intensifies the fig flavour and takes the edge off the sticky sweetness. Because it is so thick I didn't heat it as per the recipe, just scooped straight onto each cookie. Messy but good.

(On a side note, anyone else out there really miss The Cook & The Chef? Thank goodness for repeats.)

The combination of pistachio and fig was fantastic. I will be making these again.

Thanks to Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude for this week's pick!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Honey-Wheat Cookies

Oh Dorie, I do love it when you surprise me! The lovely Michelle of Flourchild chose Dorie's Honey-Wheat Cookies this week and I admit I wasn't expecting much. This is one of those recipes I have flipped past many times without taking too much notice.

I made a few slight changes to the recipe, first using raw sugar instead of white for a richer flavour, and also upping the citrus. I used the zest of a whole lemon and a whole orange and let me tell you, the aroma wafting up from that bowl of zest and sugar was divine!

I left the dough in the fridge overnight before baking these up first thing in the morning. Dorie said the recipe makes 36 and usually I'm nowhere near it. So this time I actually weighed the dough (yes, apparently I do have too much time on my hands!). My cookies averaged 20g each and I got 35. Close enough.

The taste test ...

Unexpectedly delicious! These have a really well balanced flavour with the honey, citrus and wheat germ shining through. Perfect with a cup of tea. I ate 4 before stopping myself. I froze most of the batch but I have a feeling these will taste great great frozen as well!

Thank you Michelle for a wonderful pick this week! It was a lovely break from all the chocolate this month and I will definitely be baking these again. You can find the recipe on Michelle's blog.

Tuesdays with Dorie: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week Kait of Kait's Plate chose Dorie's My best Chocolate Chip Cookies. With a name like that I had high expectations! Unfortunately these fell a little short. Or is that flat?

I made half the recipe and got 22 flat-as-a-pancake cookies. They somehow managed to be crumbly, crunchy and cakey all at once. I used dark brown sugar which gave them good colour. I also used an entire block of Whittaker's dark chocolate. So I can't figure out where these went wrong and why I didn't love them!

My ultimate chocolate chip cookie is a bit chunky, crunchy around the edges, chewy in the middle, studded with chocolate rather than filled with it, has peanuts for extra texture and a slight hint of caramel. If you know of a recipe like that please let me know :)

Thanks for an interesting pick this week Kait. I'm sorry to say these weren't a success for me but I know lots of people loved them! You can find the recipe on Kait's blog.

Ten in 10 Update 2 and Jam Drops

Well, another week done and it's been really up and down. We had some sad news on Thursday when we found out my uncle (Dad's brother) passed away suddenly overnight. Totally unexpected and I still can't believe it.

I'm the sort of person who cooks and cleans when I'm upset so the house looks great and I made some yummy cookies which I will get to in a moment.

First an official update for Ten in 10...

Things I did well this week:

1. Exercised 5 days out of 7. I was aiming for 7 days this week but overslept 2 mornings after being up a few times in the night with Oscar.

2. Switched workout dvds. The old one was becoming too easy so I guess that means my fitness is improving!

3. Weighed myself once! Lost 0.6kg which I am really happy with.

Things to work on for next week:

1. Eating consciously/watching portion size. I ate 4 jam drop cookies before I even knew what I was doing. Oh well.

When the urge to bake struck I was going to make Moogie's chocolate-filled poppyseed cookies but I think my poppyseeds were rancid. Ugh.

But I love these jam drops. Very homey and comforting. They are really sweet though so I would use only dark chocolate and a tart jam or marmalade. The flavour is more mellow the second day but they don't hold together as well. That's if they last that long!

Jam Drops/Choc Drops
Recipe adapted from Modern Classics #2 by Donna Hay, p18

180g (6oz) softened butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 ts vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1/2 ts baking powder
jam and chocolate melts to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Stir through the flour and baking powder and mix to a dough.

Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls. Place on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing room for each biscuit to spread, and flatten slightly. Press a finger into the middle of the dough to make an indent.

Fill the hole with jam (preferably something tart like raspberry or rosella) or a chocolate melt. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and add a little extra jam or another chocolate melt to each biscuit while they are still warm. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Makes approx 30 large or 60 small biscuits.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Pamela of Cookies with Boys chose Dorie's Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies this week, and this is the one recipe of the month that I am posting on the actual date!

After last weeks mammoth effort for the chestnut cake I was really happy with this pick. Only thing was I discovered after I started to make them that I was completely out of cinnamon. (Totally not my fault though as hubby threw away the pack because it wasn't sealed properly and then didn't replace it. Love you sweetie!).

Rather than wait and make them another day I compensated by upping the ginger by 1/2ts and adding in 1/4 ts ground cardamon and a very generous pinch of pepper. I also used treacle rather than molasses as I already had some.

The taste test ...

Crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle and packing a real punch of flavour. They'd be perfect for icecream sandwiches or even just dunked in a glass of ice cold milk. And I don't even like milk! These are definitely going on the list for my Christmas baking.

Thanks for an awesome pick Pamela! You can find the recipe on Pamela's blog.

Christmas Baking

We decided to take the homemade option this year and made lots of yummy things to give as gifts and of course to enjoy ourselves!

Passionfruit Melting Moments
These were lovely but I am slightly discomforted by the little speckles of food colouring that refused to dissolve! You can find the recipe here.

Espresso-Chocolate shortbread
Another successful Dorie recipe. That makes 3 in a row, woo-hoo! These were fabulous. Incredibly easy to make and roll and with a real flavour hit (as long as you like coffee and chocolate and really why would you make or eat these if you didn't??). I only had one little piece as not-yet-born people don't like caffeine.

Fruit Mince Truffles
A variation on a basic truffle recipe (just chocolate, cream and vanilla). You can find the recipe here. We left out the brandy though so I could have some!

Peanut Butter Squares
My all time favourite that I could eat by the truckload! These are Nigella's version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and they come as close as anything else I've tried. Only annoying thing is that is impossible to slice without the chocolate layer cracking (and I've tried everything from letting it sit out, a hot knife, slicing upside down etc ... all to no avail)

Ingredients for the Base

50g dark brown sugar
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar
50g unsalted butter
200g peanut butter

Ingredients for the topping

200g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
20g unsalted butter

Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or just a wooden spoon and a bowl), stir all the ingredients for the base together until smooth. You may find that some of the dark brown sugar stays in rubbly but very small, lumps, but don't worry about that. Press the sandy mixture into a 9-inch square brownie pan and make the surface as even as possible. Place in the fridge to firm up. To make the topping, melt the chocolates and butter together and spread over the base. Place in the fridge to set. When hardened, cut into very small squares as it is incredibly rich and more-ish!

Classic Christmas Cake
It's become a tradition that I make this cake, one for us and one for my grandparents. I was actually quite organised this year and managed to not only soak the fruit for a few days but make the cakes 3 weeks ahead of time so they would mature and taste even more amazing. You can find the recipe here. A huge oversight is a lack of spices (?!?!?) so I always add at least 3 teaspoons of mixed spice or whatever takes my fancy.

We turned all these goodies into gift plates to be handed out on Christmas Day. Yummy!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

Just the name says sweet, cosy comfort food don't you think? I don't really have much experience with sugar cookies. I remember making a few as a child and decorating them garishly but they've never been a big thing in our family.

I was originally planning on cutting shapes from these but after reading how puffy and mishapen they could be I went for the easier slice and bake option.

Again, no problems making, chilling, cutting or cooking these. I love it when things go according to plan!

The taste test ...

Oh. My. God. How can something so simple taste so good?? I only baked 1/4 of the dough and the instant they came out of the oven I was wishing I'd done more. They were sweet without being overpowering, slightly crispy around the edges and a little chewy in the middle. Absolute cookie perfection. I was planning on adding a basic lemon glaze but honestly they didn't need anything. Thank you Dorie's Grandma and Ulrike of Küchenlatein!

Update - I have since made the rest of the batch, sprinkling some with cinnamon sugar after baking, and rolling a log in raw sugar before slicing and baking. Both divine! These have ended up on some Christmas gift plates and been very well received!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Linzer Sables

One bite of these and I was instantly transported! I can't remember where or when I've eaten these but the taste and aroma of these lovely biscuits was incredibly familiar.

I had no issues at all making these. The dough came together easily, rolled out well, cut well and cooked perfectly. I used hazelnut meal and raspberry jam for these but really the possibilities are endless. I ended up using an apple corer to cut out the little holes in the middle because nothing else was the right size!

I made a full batch of the dough but only cooked 3 biscuits, 1 for each of us. The rest of the dough is biding it's time in the freezer, ready to be made into Christmas gifts. I took the advice of others and made sure to roll the dough very thin, so the whole cookie sandwich is probably 1/4 inch.

The taste test ...

Simply fabulous. The hazelnuts and ground cloves gave it a rich, aromatic earthiness which worked perfectly with the raspberry jam. Loved the crunch! I much prefer crunchy biscuits to soft cakey ones any day. I will definitely be making more of these!

Thank you to noskos of Living the Life for this wonderful pick.

Next week: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies (which I've already made but will wait to post next Tuesday).

Tuesdays with Dorie: Buttery Jam Cookies

So I made these early for a few reasons. Firstly they were the least likely gifts of all the cookies this month. Secondly, I apparently can't read and thought these were actually supposed to be made this week. Doh!

The making of these cookies heralded the arrival of Summer in Brisbane.

Without really thinking I got the butter out of the fridge about 9pm the night before. I got up to a puddle of oil with a blob of yellow in the middle. Ew. I decided to persevere though as these were destined for a morning tea in just a few short hours so I weighed the blob, made up the amount with extra butter and waited a mere 20 minutes for it to be soft enough.

The dough itself was incredibly soft. I think I can blame that on the weather rather than the recipe, but I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks.

The taste test ...

These were very different from what I expected. 'Buttery' made me think of cookies that are slightly crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. These ended up being very soft and very cakey the whole way through.

My tip ... choose your all time, absolute favourite jam for these because that is where the bulk of the flavour comes from. However just as Dorie says, the jam really does add something to the texture, making them slightly denser and chewier than you would expect.

Because of the cakeyness these are screaming out for add-ins. Next time I make these (and I do foresee a next time!) I would add some toasted almonds to the apricot jam, or use raspberry jam with dark chocolate chips.

My only other issue came from baking these in batches. You can see from the photo that some look smooth and others look textured on top. The smooth ones were the first batch. By the time the tray was cool enough to use again the baking powder was doing its job and 'fluffing up' the mix. I liked the look of batch number 2 better!

Thanks to Heather of Randomosity and the Girl for this pick which of course was supposed to be for next Tuesday, 16th December. It was fun!

Sometime in the next 2 weeks - Linzer Sables and Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies.