Cranberry, White Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies

These cookies just shout Christmas to me! They're red, white and green and packed with Christmassy flavours. I always make cookies to give as Christmas gifts because they are so transportable and always so well received.  Every year I say I should make more cookies and fewer chocolate-y things because of the heat but it never happens!

These are the sort of cookies with so many mix-ins you wonder how they will stay together. Then you make them and they're perfect, crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle and packed with little surprises. Oh and they make the house smell amazing :)

Cranberry, White Chocolate and Pistachio Cookies
Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

1¼ cups plain flour
½ ts baking powder
½ ts baking soda
¼ ts salt
120g butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 ts vanilla extract
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup roasted salted pistachios, chopped
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 190 / 170 degrees fan-forced. Line 2 trays with baking paper and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.

Using an electric mixer beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Carefully mix in the dry ingredients then using a spatuala, fold through the oats, pistachios, cranberries and white chocolate.

Roll the dough into balls and place onto prepared trays, allowing room for spreading. Flatten the top of each biscuit with your fingers then bake for approx 10 minutes or until slightly golden on top. Allow to cool on the trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container.

Makes approx 30.

Cranberry & Cream Cheese Strudel

I love all the free Christmas magazines put out by supermarkets at this time of year. I mean I love food magazines any time but you gotta love free stuff! While there is a lot of advertising you can find little recipe gems and some great ideas for menu plans, table settings and gifts.

This recipe came from a freebie booklet from Coles called Recipes for Christmas Baking. I've no idea whether it is still available but just check your local Coles.

I made this intending to take it to our mother's group Christmas breakup but after baking I realised it is actually more of a dessert than a morning tea treat. No worries, I made a batch of brownies to take and saved this strudel for us!

It has gorgeous Christmas flavours with cranberries, almond and nutmeg but it would make a lovely dessert any time of the year. While it is meant to be served warm with ice cream, we ate most of ours sliced and cold from the fridge and it was delicious that way too.

Cranberry & Cream Cheese Strudel

250g cream cheese, softened
1 large egg
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 ts ground nutmeg
100g dried cranberries
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup almond meal
6 sheets filo pastry
75g melted butter
1/4 cup flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 200 / 180 degrees fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.

With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, cream, egg, sugar and nutmeg until smooth and well combined. Fold in the cranberries and set aside.

In a small bowl mix together the almond meal and breadcrumbs. Lay one sheet of filo onto your prepared tray and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle over 1 tablespoon of the almond/breadcrumbs mixture. Lay another sheet of filo on top and repeat until all filo and almond mixture is used.

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the filo stack, leaving a 4cm border around all edges. Fold in the short sides of the pastry, then with the long side facing you roll up tightly into a log. Brush the top with remaining melted butter and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.

Bake for 5 minutes at 200 /180 degrees fan forced then reduce the temperature to 180 / 160 degrees and bake for a further 25-30 minutes or until crisp and golden on top and firmish to the touch.

Serve warm with ice cream and cold from the fridge. Serves 8-10.

Tim Tam Balls

It seems I have been missing out because I hadn't even heard of these little beauties until last week!

Apparently they are the most popular recipe on the Stay At Home Mum blog and I can see why. I mean everyone loves tim tams and having them in ball form makes them even more appealing. But be warned, you won't be able to stop at one!

These are just one of the tasty little homemade morsels our family and friends will be receiving this year. I will also be making my famous Rum Balls, mini Christmas Cakes and Peanut Butter squares as well as a few other things which I will post soon.

This is half the original recipe which you will find here on Stay At Home Mum.

Tim Tam Balls

1 packet of Tim Tams, any flavour
125g cream cheese (1/2 a block) at room temperature
1 cup dessicated coconut OR hundreds & thousands

Place the tim tams into the food processor and blitz until they turn into crumbs. Add the cream cheese and pulse until the mixture forms a clump around the blade. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls and then roll in the coconut or hundreds & thousands (I did 1 batch of each). Makes approx 20. Chill until ready to serve.

Baking with Julia - Finnish Pulla Failure

I feel like I have lost my baking mojo these last few weeks. Which is scary to admit considering how close to Christmas we are and just how many things I am yet to bake!

Today's Finnish Pulla takes the cake for disasters. It just didn't work. I'm partly blaming the weather (very hot) and my being distracted and leaving it too long in the second rise (because of a screaming 2 year old refusing to nap).

My bread was flat and mishapen and tasted strongly of yeast. I'm positive I measured correctly so not sure what's going on there. The end result was ugly and inedible and so very disappointing.

 
Our host this week is Erin of The Daily Morsel. I'm hoping she had better luck than me!

No Baking with Julia this week ...

So I didn't get around to making the Gingerbread Baby Cakes for Baking with Julia. I was kind of leaving them until the last minute but it was a scorching 38 degrees here in Brisbane today and the oven is staying off!

If it's cooler where you live and you love gingerbread check out our host Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories for the recipe and some gorgeous photos.