Choc chip cookies continued...

Previous posts have documented a quest for the choc chip cookie to be perfected. Perhaps my problem with this quest starts with the fact that in Aus, I should be searching for a choc chip bickie not cookie!

These are pretty good though. Initially whipped up by the fella when we went away for a weekend. Currently they are my go-to staples when it comes to choc chip biscuits. Are they that good though that experimenting with recipes will cease? I think not. The mix can be temperamental at times. With flat, fuzzy edged biscuits. Or hard as little frisbees if given a few minutes too long. But when they work, oh they are good!

I hope you have success with these.

Choc Chip Biscuits Take 2
Makes around 3 dozen small biscuits

125 g butter, softened
1 c brown sugar, gently but firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
200 g choc chip bits
100 g nuts, diced (walnuts, hazelnuts, etc)

Pre-heat oven to 180* C fan-forced. Divide oven shelves into thirds. Line three baking trays with paper.

Beat butter with brown sugar. Using a mixer is ideal - give it around three minutes to be light and fluffy. Add vanilla, milk and egg, beat briefly to combine. Gently stir in the flour and baking powder. Turn off the mixer and add the choc chip bits and nuts. Stir to combine.

At this point, your biscuit mixture may benefit from a rest in the fridge to firm things up. Even 15 minutes could be good. But if it is not too soft, get on with the baking. Using a spoon, heap small rounds of mixture onto your prepared trays. They can be any size really, but I find balls around 3 cm in diameter or so work well - more than a mouthful but not a complete meal.

Cook in the oven for around 8 minutes. Check at this point and give the biscuits more time if needed. Remove and cool on the trays for 5 or so minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with a cup of tea. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week. Alternatively, once the balls of dough have been formed and placed onto the trays, freeze. Once frozen, place in bags of around a dozen. Then when you need a snack, there are biscuits that only need to be cooked (or dough eaten from frozen).

Adapted from Michele Cranston's Marie Claire: Kitchen, the Ultimate Recipe Collection.

Easter gifts...

Are people moving away from bought chocolate eggs? Whenever I go to the supermarket, I doubt it. There are rows and rows of foil-wrapped, perfectly formed delicious goodness. But they are all the same, can be snaffled down in a matter of minutes and can lack a personal touch. Plus my sister-in-law has inspired me as she wants to give fair-trade eggs and is on the hunt for the perfectly sized ones.


Now the fella and I don't feel compelled to give each other eggs. We would be okay with a hot cross bun instead, or a block of chocolate even... And with my girlfriends we tend to make things for each other. Last year being so far away I made an enormity of fabric "eggs" (really misshapen balls), took a photo and sent it off. As for this year...


The first thing I've had the energy to create has been these Easter cup-cakes. Why they are associated with Easter, I'm not sure to be honest. They came from a Coles catalogue a few years ago labeled as "Easter Mud Muffins". I have changed them a little, make them as cakes and think they look swell with a little Easter decoration. If you are going to call a baked good "Easter ---" it should at least have some connection through decoration, don't you think? So when a girlfriend came to tea, she left with a few of these. And the fella keeps sneaking them out of the fridge. The container this morning had only five left! There were originally 17, with some given away also... but only five left!

My next Easter baking adventure I hope will be an Easter nest cake. I've then got Russian Easter bread to make for a family gathering. The kitchen, here I come.

Easter Cup Cakes
Makes 16 or so

100g butter
100 g chocolate, broken up
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 c plain flour
3 tbs baking powder
2 tbs cocoa powder
3/4 c apricots, diced
1/2 c walnuts, roughly chopped

Pre-heat oven to 160* C. Line a 1/2 c cupcake/muffin tray with papers.

Combine butter, chocolate and sugar in a saucepan. Melt over a low-medium heat. Remove from heat.

Stir in the milk, followed by the eggs once the mixture is not boiling hot. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa, stirring to combine. Fold in the apricots and walnuts. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin, filling to 3/4 full or so.

Bake in the oven for around 18-25 minutes, checking after 18 to see if they are cooked. Rotate the tray if you want to also. Remove and cool for around 5 minutes before turning cupcakes onto a rack to cool completely.

Butter Icing
Makes enough to generously ice these cupcakes

3/4 c butter
2 c icing sugar
2 tbs cocoa

In your mixer, beat the butter until very light and white in colour. This will take at least 5 minutes. Add the icing sugar and beat for a further 5 minutes until the icing is very light and fluffy and smooth. Add the cocoa, mix until combined throughout.

Spread mixture generously over the tops of the cakes. Decorate with an Easter egg or similar if you want to.

Who am I - flavours with a twist...

What are they?

They are versatile and are a perfectly legitimate excuse to eat cake for breakfast.

They freeze well.

They don't mind being warmed in the microwave.

They can be made with just about everything or anything in the cupboard.

They work well with coffee.

Muffins! So tasty! So easy to prepare. So readily transformed by whatever ingredients take your fancy. Like today. I had some sour cream in the fridge that needed to be used. There were also some stalks of rhubarb floating around. And surely there was some chocolate tucked away somewhere. Twenty minutes later I had made a delectable snack that would feed us both for the next few days. And what a combination. Bitter depth of dark chocolate, tang of the rhubarb. And the combination of colours won me over too - pink and brown, so irresistible. I must confess, I've eaten more than my fair share today...

Rhubarb and Chocolate Muffins

Makes 12

1 3/4 c plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c sugar

1 stalk rhubarb, diced finely

3/4 c chocolate, in bits

30 g butter, softened

1 c sour cream

2 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 180* C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and mix to combine. Stir in the rhubarb and chocolate.

In a separate bowl combine the butter, sour cream and eggs. Mix this mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring minimally to combine. Scoop generously into the muffin trays, close to full really.

Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, checking and turning in the oven after 8 minutes. Remove from oven, leave to cool slightly in their tray for 5 minutes before turning onto a rack to cool.

Eat within 2 days, or else store muffins in the freezer for a rainy day.

Inspired by a recipe from the Trinity Church Cookbook.

The choc chip bickie adventure begins...

One of my quests in life is to make the perfect chocolate chip biscuit. And I'm not there yet. But boy is it fun trying. I've tried my mum's version, with cocoa, raisins, nuts and chocolate - too fudgy, too intense. I've tried the Kitchy Kitchen's with pulverised oats - too flat, too much mixture. I've tried some of Joy the Baker's peanut butter choc chip cookies - again flat and I'm not sure about the peanut butter. The recipe I return to again and again is from a church cook book. The recipes in there are all family friendly as they are made by mums who are busy running after hoards of children. They need to work, and they need to work fast.

So these bickies almost cut the mustard. I would like them a little thicker. But not too thick, and not too chewy or too dry either. Tough, I know. This week I have been inspired to whip up these ones again after buying what was purported to be a home made choc chip cookie to have with a coffee. The cookie crumbled, literally. Simply fell apart when I ate it and messed up my shirt. Now surely I can make a better biscuit than that!

Want to come on a choc chip biscuit making quest with me? Hurrah!

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Makes 36 or so

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

125 g butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1 3/4 self-raising flour

2 c chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 180* C. Line two baking trays with paper.

In your mixer, cream together sugars and butter. Mix together until light and fluffy, around five minutes. Add the vanilla essence and mix briefly. Add the egg and mix to combine. Sift in the flour, mix briefly to just combine. Stop the mixer, add the chocolate chips and combine with a wooden spoon.

Place the mixture into the fridge for 30 minutes to harden slightly. Place drops of dough onto the prepared baking tray, around 2 cm in diameter, evenly spaced. Bake in oven for 8 - 12 minutes, it really depends on your oven. Some of mine have taken only 8 minutes, others I've needed to rotate the trays and cook for up to 12 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool on tray for 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool. Repeat cooking process as needed. Store in an air-tight container for as long as they last.