Tag Archives: cookies

Peanut Butter Lindt Ball Christmas Cookies

23 Dec

 

Multicultural Inspiration from…

 

the world of baking!


Merry Christmas!!! I must apologise for my diminished presence over the last few weeks – between the new job, a few family dramas and getting some work done on my cook book in my minimal spare hours, I haven’t had a heap of time left over to blog (my bad!)… but, before a little hiatus over Christmas and the New Year, I had to get another one in!

So, how these cookies came about, is entirely my little sister’s fault. You see, she works two doors down from my new place of employment, in a lolly shop. It is absolutely packed full of the most delicious treats. After a visit to say hi on my way into work a few weeks ago, I noticed, to my incredible pleasure and excitement, boxes upon boxes of peanut butter Lindt balls… wowww….. I’ve developed an obsession with the peanut butter chocolate combination in the form of Reese’s, but Lindt balls? That’s just a whole new level of amazing!

I knew I had to have them, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. A few days ago, I returned to get my goodies. With a box of these in hand, I went back to work, bumping into my cousin on the way. Upon hearing of my plans, he bought a box as well, placing his order for a batch. So did my work colleagues. So, home I went a few nights ago, with Lindt in hand. I put them in the fridge over night, and got ready to get my cookie on.

The recipe I used was the same as the one I used for the Hazelnut Choc Chip Cookies, months ago when I first started this blog. As a quick recap, here’s what you’ll need as the base recipe:

  • 2  1/4  cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 150g butter, softened
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For this pimped up, super amazing, Christmas version, you’ll also need a 185g box of Peanut Butter Lindt Balls, and 100g of good quality milk chocolate chips.

Take the Lindt balls out of the fridge and chop them up roughly. Then put them back into the fridge, so they don’t go all gooey while you’re getting the dough together.

Ok, maybe not the whole box of chocolates went in… but it was pretty close. I dare you not to sneak a few bits though!

Now, pre-heat the oven to 150°C, and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl, and beat them with an electric mixer for a few minutes, until they look something like this:

Add the flour, bit by bit, mixing as you go – be careful not to over mix though, only until it’s just incorporated.

Add a little sea salt, to really bring out the peanut buttery aspect of these cookies…

… mix in all the chocolatey bits, and drop tablespoon sized chunks onto the cookie tray. Space them out well though, because they will expand quite a bit.

Into the oven they go, for 15 – 18 minutes (no less than 15 though – even though they may look brown and cooked through, they’re not yet)…

… aaaand out they come!

Let them cool on their tray for a while before moving them – they may not look it, but they are an incredibly gooey, soft cookie!

Just the right amount of sickly, chocolatey sweetness and peanut buttery saltiness, these cookies literally crumble as you pick them up, and melt away as you sink your teeth into them.

The batch I made for my lovely work colleagues were a slightly different recipe, a different base, but still soft in the centre. These cookies are just a whole new level of soft and chewy though… we’ll see how they go down at Christmas lunch in a few days!!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, enjoy the time with your family and friends, enjoy good food and good times together and have fun! But before we go, what are you bringing to Christmas lunch this year?!

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Flour Cookies

24 Oct

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

 

So, it’s been spoken about before, but I absolutely looooooove coconut. It brings me back to my holidays in Fiji. When I was younger, and had the metabolism of a speed train, my favourite snack was a cereal bowl full of shredded coconut and chocolate chips. No joke. So when I discovered I could by coconut flour, I jumped straight onto that wagon and ordered myself a kilo. And, naturally, the first thing that came to mind was coconut chocolate chip cookies. Because it’s the best combination ever.

I took some inspiration from the basics of Jamie Oliver’s Coconut Flour Cookie recipe, and, as always, put my own spin on it to make this small batch of cookies (double it for a bigger appetite!)…

  • 50g caster sugar
  • 50g granulated white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 85g softened butter
  • 100g coconut flour
  • 40g milk cooking chocolate, roughly chopped

 

First up, preheat your oven to 190°C, and line a cookie tray with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl, place both sugars, the eggs, vanilla and butter…

… and beat well with an electric hand beater, until it looks a little like this…

Sift in the coconut flour, mix well to combine, and let the mixture sit for a few minutes while you chop up the chocolate.

Add in the chocolate chunks, mix it all together, and get ready to bake some cookies!

Now, you can make your cookies as big or small as you want – I decided to make this into little bite-sized pieces of deliciousness, so I used a tablespoon to scoop out chunks of cookie mixture and rounded them into balls.

Line em up, flatten em out a little, and pop em in the oven!

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, let them cool for a few minutes, and then, just go nuts!!

They came out almost perfectly; soft and chewy, with the most amazing coconut flavour, although, they were a tiny little bit dry for my liking – more butter next time I think!

I also wouldn’t mind giving these little bad boys a try again with a bit of shredded coconut as well… and maybe another version with crushed toasted macadamias and white chocolate. Delicious!

Over to you, lovely readers – any favourite combinations like my coconut and chocolate fixation?!

 

 

My First Cooking Class!

6 Jul

Today I taught my very first cooking class! Wow! What an experience!

I was invited to teach six 10 year olds to bake brownies and cookies at Catherine’s birthday party. My initial reaction was panic. Then fear. Then “oh-dear-God-what-have-I-gotten-myself-in-for?!?!” You see, for those of you who don’t know me, children kinda freak me out. I’m not really a “child” person and do not have a single maternal bone in my body. I feel like I’m really no good at interacting with children (although my dear teacher husband Sous-Jeff disagrees) and they just scare me. There you go.

But, I’m on a new path of following my passion, and that path just happened to intersect with a pack of 10 year olds. So in the spirit of trying anything once, off I went to teach not only my first cooking class, but to teach children!

 

Thankfully, Agata came along with me, to act as my kitchen hand while I ran the class. We arrived to meet six shy girls, a little unsure of what was going to happen. Two and a half hours later, we left six girls on a total sugar high, with cocoa powder and melted chocolate up to their elbows and all over their faces, grins from ear to ear as they compared their cookies.

 

The girls paired up and we made a batch of brownies each. They were a very well behaved group of ladies, paying extra special attention and being very careful with potentially dangerous kitchen tasks such as chopping butter with their little butter knives and melting the butter and chocolate over simmering water on the stove. Team work was fantastic here!

So that the girls could give their own flair to their brownies, we had a big range of goodies for the girls to decorate theirs with – marshmallows, white chocolate chips, jelly beans, Smarties, mint filled chocolate squares, Maltesers and sprinkles! Yum!


 

10 minutes into the brownie making, the girls were already pleading with me to let them lick the spoons – they hadn’t actually even added all the ingredients to the mixture at this point, so the second the mixture was into the baking trays, spoons were licked and faces and hands were coated with chocolate. I may have gotten involved too. Don’t judge me.

 

With the brownies in the oven and Agata the kitchen angel having done the dishes, we got to work on the cookies. One of the young ladies in the group had an egg white and nut allergy, so we decided to make egg-and-nut-product free cookies! We put the mixture together in two groups of three girls, then split the mixtures into small bowls so the girls could each add whatever they wanted.

 

The cookies ranged in variety from sprinkles-and-Maltesers, to marshmallows-and-jelly beans. Some of the poor cookies (like the marshmallow ones) got a little gooey and flat in the oven, but regardless of how they looked, they tasted delicious, and they were completely the girls’ creations, so they were winners too!

 

Ag and I left the party before the brownies were cut up and devoured, but they smelt incredible, and looked very pretty :)

It was so fantastic to see young kids getting involved in the kitchen – not because they were being forced to, but because they wanted to. They were even paying enough attention to what they were doing that they were able to tell me if their mixtures were smooth or grainy, too gooey or too dry. I had such a great time; it was indescribably fun sharing my passion for cooking. Really, really fun. And I can’t wait to do it all over again!!

You can check out more of the classes I’m teaching at Amore Cucina’s website – including High Tea, Chocolate Decadence, Cooking for Blokes, Gnocchi Workshop, Italian Christmas and more!

 

Cooking Class Sneak Preview!

27 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy


 

For those of you who don’t know, I’m about to embark on a new and exciting adventure – teaching my very own cooking classes!!! I’m soooo excited to be teaming up with the lovely Agata from Amore Cucina to bring some of my favourite dishes to others! I’ll be teaching a lot of Italian home cooking, as well as some Spanish food, and lots of sweets and desserts.

 

I’ll be teaching my very first classes in a few weeks, on July 30th and 31st – “Italian Christmas Cooking,” where I’ll be teaching you how to add a little Italian to your Christmas lunch, with antipasti, mains and of course, desserts!

 

Here’s a little sneak peak at one of the desserts I’ll be teaching – “cuzzupa,” or, Christmas sweets. They’re delicious little citrus flavoured, scone like biscuits, coated in a lemon glaze, and are traditionally used in the Italian region of Calabria as gifts to loved ones at Christmas time. Can’t wait to teach them, because they are soooo yummy! You can enrol on Agata’s website, here, and hopefully I’ll see you there :)

Hamburger Cupcakes

19 Jun

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!


Two words I bet you never thought you’d hear together. Hamburger cupcakes. Random enough to get your attention? Thought so!

I found a picture of these around 3 years ago, after Googling “cute cupcakes,” wanting to find a super cute picture to email to a friend who was having a bad day. What I found, in amongst the fairy-and-pink-polka-dotted cakes, was a picture of what looked like a hamburger, but apparently made from far sweeter ingredients. I was intrigued, and clicked on the picture, hoping for a recipe or instructions, or more information at least! What I got was a bigger version of the picture.

I printed out an A4 sized copy of the cute little picture, took it home, and resolved to re-create them for myself. That weekend, I did exactly that, for my cousin’s birthday dinner with the family (he was turning 18 by the way…), and have since re-created it in a giant cake size for another cousin’s 13th birthday two weeks later, and then again now so long ago for a work colleague’s son’s birthday! Talk about a popular cake!

Anyway, how they came about again – we’re holding a cake-and-cookie stall at work at the moment to raise funds for the YMCA’s Open Doors charity – a gold coin donation will get you one of the lovely baked goods kindly made and donated by the staff at our branch. A colleague of mine made some awfully cute bumblebee cupcakes, and I decided I would not be defeated by them. So it was time to pull out the big guns. It was hamburger cupcake time.

They look a lot more complicated than they actually are, and they’re the product of a little bit of trial and error, seeing as I didn’t actually have a recipe to follow originally. But I improvised, and here’s what I came up with…

First, for the “burger buns,” bake a batch of standard vanilla cupcakes, in mini cupcake cases instead of standard size, and sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds before baking them.

For the “patties,” I made up a batch of chocolate cookie dough, and spread it over a baking tray as one giant rectangular cookie. Once it was baked and cooled, I used a shot glass as a size stencil and cut around that very carefully with a sharp knife to create the little round patties.

For the lettuce, I put some shredded coconut into a snap lock bag with a few drops of green food dye, and shook it around until all the coconut was coloured.

The tomato sauce was just icing sugar mixed with a few drops of red food colouring and a bit of water.

And the cheese was some royal icing dyed with yellow food colouring. Once it’s been coloured, roll it out between two pieces of baking paper.

Now, to put them together…

First up, peel the cupcake cases off the cakes, and slice them in half (top and bottom).

Then place one of the chocolate cookie patties onto the bottom half of the cupcake bun.

On with the cheese next! Slice it up into squares that will fit on top of the cookie pattie and hang over the edges a little. The easiest way to get the slices off the paper is by sliding a super sharp knife under the square and carefully sliding it off.

With a teaspoon, carefully spoon a small amount of the red icing “sauce” in the middle of the “cheese” – don’t worry about pushing it down the sides, it’ll drip once you put the top of the bun on and toothpick it all together.

Sprinkle a bit of coconut “lettuce” on top…

… put the lid on, and pop a toothpick through the burger, and you’re done!

These burgers might only be little, but they pack a huge punch! They’re pretty cute, and the combo of cake, cookie, icing and coconut all in one is a sugar lovers dream! And the kids passing by the stall at work seem to have liked them too, judging by the fact that 24 hours after I dropped 2 dozen of them off, there were only 2 left! Success!

From a little picture on the internet to a delicious little reality, here are my hamburger cupcakes! Sous-Jeff is already voting for hotdogs next! How about you? Have you tried making something that tastes like something else completely?!

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