Mmm melting moments

We caught up with friends we hadn't seen in a while over these spring break school holidays.  I have been a little less hectic with the baking, not baking so frequently as I used to because I'd been pulling longer shifts at work, and the kids are just as busy as ever with after-school clubs and activities.  But these particular friends that were coming - well, their 13 year old was really getting into baking and I felt that I had to offer them something fresh and new as it was quite likely they'd bring along one of her treats.

I decided to keep things simple and fun, and go for small individual servings rather than a large cake that may not get fully devoured when at its best.  I chose Melting Moments - a sandwich biscuit well-loved but not often enjoyed from my youth - and even used an Australian recipe.  Well, it had to be, didn't it?!  

These beauties needed to have a particular consistency that melted in your mouth and crumbled slightly when you bit into them, but not so much that you lost all your biscuit at the first bite.  So I was a little apprehensive as I started.

Following the recipe to the letter, they rolled into what looked like small cute balls of dough.  I then flattened them with a glass and made indents with a fork.

So far, so good - they looked correct, or should I say, as I remembered.  Once out of the oven, they still looked pretty darn good but had spread a bit bigger.  I hadn't bargained on that, so made a note on the recipe for the next time.  Some were a cute 4.5cm in diameter but others were up to a centimetre larger.  So I took note to choose similar sized ones to sandwich together.

I had some classic vanilla buttercream and also some rich, decadent chocolate buttercream waiting ready to fill them.  Then I thought lemon would taste nice, so chose a lush lemon curd to add to some of the vanilla buttercream - mmm, great idea.

All the taste-testers were impressed, and I am pleased to say that this recipe tastes just like the ones I remember from cafes of my youth.  And all 3 flavours worked really well - a definite recipe to keep.

Aunty Merle's shortbread

We live in Scotland, and quite like shortbread.  It's rather a staple food here - the Scots invented it actually, so there are many good brands from which to choose in almost any shop you visit.  However the last time I fancied eating some, I resisted the urge to buy some.  You see, I remembered this wonderful recipe that my dear friend H had given to me, given to her by her Aunty Merle.

We had first tried it at her homestead in rural Victoria, Australia (as you do) and all loved it!  I made it first a while back and it was nearly as good as hers, so I was determined to try again.

The recipe specified that the butter had to be cold, so I chopped it into little cubes and popped it in the food processor, as directed.

It didn't mix very well for a while, and I began to panic, as I couldn't telephone H for advice due to the time difference between Scotland and Australia.  But luckily the batter 'took' and it all became one large lump of cookie dough quite soon.  

I formed the batter into little balls, about the size of a Lindor chocolate (mmm, don't get me started on how delicious they are!  Have you tried the new coconut one? Heaven).  I had made a note on the recipe the last time that they would spread...

And they did.  Ah well, life's tough sometimes, isn't it?!  ha ha.  These are probably a bit overdone, but they tasted so good, and lasted almost a week in the cake tin that none of us minded at all.  I wonder how they'd taste if I flavoured them with something other than vanilla???  Yummy, thanks H

Salted caramel and chocolate sounds good, right?

I had printed out this recipe, from Goodtoknow, for salted caramel and chocolate cookies and been looking forward to trying it out.  The Team are getting ever busier with their after-school sports and activities, and with me working during the days now there's precious little spare time in which to bake-for-fun at the moment.  So I took the chance this afternoon, while they were out enjoying the glorious afternoon with the neighbour children.

Or so I thought.  But when Mini-2 noticed I was getting all the ingredients ready, she insisted on helping me (Mini-1 had been first to get her shoes on, so was already outdoors).  The recipe was very easy to prepare and follow, but my main gripe was the addition of the chocolate before you left it to sit and cool and solidify.  It became basically one hot mess!

So when you tried to dollop out the amounts on the cookie tray in order to bake them, it was already oozing all over the place.  Even more so when baked  :(

The second batch appeared like it was going better, because the batter was cooler and more solid, but they still spread hugely whilst baking, and didn't end up looking any better.  

So the verdict chez Becca?   They smelt great whilst baking, and now, and taste ok but look pretty bad. Have you made this recipe?  How did it work out for you?

Mmm, melting moments - a biscuit from my youth

As many of my readers may know by now, I grew up in the wonderful land of milk and honey, often known as Australia.  And one of the biscuits that I recall from away back then, that I haven't eaten in decades and had all but forgotten about, is Melting Moments.

Then lo and behold, they appeared in my Facebook newsfeed, made by a baker who lives in Adelaide.  I admired her photo, gave it a little thought, then figured if you don't ask, you don't get.  I contacted her, explained I was very far away and thus no competition to her and kindly asked for the recipe...  And she was lovely!  So happy to share and so I made them.

Now, these were quite easy, and The Team could have helped if they wanted to - as Lindsay (the Australian baker) had made them with her children, but they were too busy enjoying the Summer Holidays to worry about remaining indoors with a hot oven on a hot day.  Clever girls!

Mmm, don't they look good?  The recipe only made 13 halves, so this is the whole haul.  I made them with vanilla glace icing in the middle, rather than lemon as suggested, as I felt the taste would be better.  And it was - not only did The Team love them, but Mr Becca pronounced them delicious too.  High praise indeed  ;)

Tim Tam truffles

Tim Tam truffles.  Tim Tam truffles.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  Kinda rolls off the tongue, don'tcha think?  Kinda like Becca Bakes, one might say... Only in the UK, these chocolate, chocolate sandwiched and covered biscuits aren't called Tim Tams.  Oh no, they're not as mighty, not as tasty (to me anyway) and  not called Tim Tams.  They're called Penguins.  Yep, seriously.  And Penguin truffles just sounds a little bit wrong to me.

I found the recipe on an Australian site called Best Recipes, along with the one I used for the first school bake class, for Anzac biscuits.  It's here, and it's wrong.  Mind you, that's rather blunt, and disrespectful.  Most unlike me.  I should be more polite, and say that I couldn't get it to work at the quantities specified.  That may well be because Penguins aren't the same as Tim Tams.  But either way, I had to modify the recipe along the way.

I had to use 18 Penguins (360g worth) in the end, and 8 digestive biscuits too, to get the right consistency for rolling once the sweetened, condensed milk had been added.

And I didn't fancy grating chocolate, when I had chocolate line sprinkles to hand.  They were ready in time for the girls getting in from school (or technically, they were ready in time for me to clean up and refrigerate them before walking to collect the girls from school).  So they were super easy, super quick and super sickly tasty.  A three-way win, a trifecta even!  Ha ha

Anzac biscuits, at school, in October?

I had a meeting with a primary (elementary) school in our city a month or so ago, about teaching baking to a select group of children.  It was myself, the Principal Teacher for that department and the Healthy Eating Assistant for the school, and we discussed what type of recipes may be suitable, which ingredients the Scottish Government Healthy Eating Policy (or whatever its official name is) would allow and so forth.  As a slight geek, I was excited about the basic science and maths involved in baking - watching the solids turn to liquid, watching disparate ingredients turn into delicious cookies and cakes, seeing the numbers on the scales increase, sifting the flour through the little holes and watching it get finer and so on.  I like it when my girls master a new skill, like sifting flour only into the bowl, or cracking eggs and having no shell in the bowl, or weighing out sugar and was hoping to pass that joy on to other kids.

We determined that we'd need short, easy recipes to start with (no mention was made of how long this arrangement may continue, but one session to start with, so Oct-Dec) and that in the week that I wasn't in class, the teachers would work on hygiene, basic maths, science etc to prepare the children for what was to come. 

Somehow the idea of cooking from different countries came up, and with my Aussie background, I looked for simple classically Australian recipes of my youth, and found this beauty that would perfectly suit our needs - Anzac biscuits.  For the history behind these tasty crunchy, oaty bickies (as the Aussies call them), see here.

Isn't this board great?  The teacher made it to visually show the children all the steps involved in baking.  On the left side we can see the ingredients for this particular recipe, and the recipe itself in the middle.  They each had various tasks to perform, and next time their name will be beside the task for that lesson.

Here are the biscuits, ready for the oven.  The Healthy Eating Assistant was going to take them through to the school kitchen, and they would be ready for the children once they'd eaten their lunch - perfect.

One of the children cleaning the table, others were tasked with washing and drying dishes - not their favourite parts. 
The lesson ended before the biscuits were baked, and I had wanted to try out the recipe before teaching it, so below we can see The Team plus a friend/classmate/neighbour stirring the biscuit mix yesterday afternoon, after they'd all done their homework of course.

 Here we see her making 'balls' with the mix the clean way, getting it ready for the oven.

And the finished product - the Kitchen smelled fantastic, and the biscuits were crunchy, oaty and delicious!  Enjoy.

 

Iced cookies, well I never...

There's a new cake decorating magazine just been released by De Agostini in the UK (famous, or should that be infamous, for doing collector magazines where the first issue is 99p but subsequent ones are usually £2.99-£5.99 and you need 70 to complete your model or whatever), called Cake Decorating.  It too had the first issue, with free cover gift, for a mere 99p and subsequent issues are £2.99 weekly, each with cover gifts.  It looked pretty good to me, so I bought the first one and was actually quite impressed, despite myself.  The photos are very clear, as are the instructions and the tools you get are detailed inside the magazine, with a variation on techniques to create different effects.  So, thanks to one of the nursery dad's who is a milkman, I have managed to buy each issue up till today (Issue 6).  There is a subscription offer, that is free of p&p, and they give you even more gifts with the first, third, fifth and seventh deliveries, but when you read the small print you see that they can send you extra items as they choose for £7.99 each and that puts me off.  But S says he's happy to pick me one up each week as he's doing his rounds - to which I say Thank You.

So, on to the point of this post - it is coming, I promise, but first a little more background.  A small local bakery near Becca Towers does iced cookies for around 70p each and the Mini Bakes love them.  They are shaped and designed like either Iggle Piggle or Mr Blobby, so not really of interest, but they love them nonetheless.   I don't like the idea of paying so much for such a simple thing, so have avoided doing so on the last couple of occasions, saying 'Oh, I'm sure we could make them ourselves'.  So when Mini-1 saw last week's issue of the above-mentioned magazine, she reminded me of that promise and asked for the heart-shaped biscuits.

So, to work.

Following the simple recipe, Mini-2 decided not to help me weigh out and mix up the ingredients before they went into the fridge for 30 minutes.  I was instructed to call her when it was time to roll them out and cut them. 

She liked getting floury hands...

But lifting the cut shapes onto the baking sheet was a tricky affair, even when using her special stripy mini spatula.

A mere 12 minutes later they were done.

This took us up until lunchtime, then it was time to walk to nursery.  But look what I managed to do later on, the outlines with soft-peak royal icing.  I'm not great with whipping up egg white to get meringues, so 'cheated' and used Royal Icing Sugar.  The  magazine showed you photos of what consistency was what, so made it easy for me.  Thanks to the regular cupcakes, I was confident with the fine piping - but not great, as you can see by the wobbly lines.

Then to fill them with 'runny icing', which just has a bit more water added.

I stopped for the day at this point, as you had to let them dry for 4 hours.  My runny icing must have had a little too much water added, because the next morning they weren't fully hard.  Oh well.

A poor quality photo, sorry.  But you can see the decorations done with soft-peak icing again (like for the edging).  The A and L are for my friend who's birthday is today and her hubby L who's birthday is tomorrow.  Despite the obvious flaws, she was impressed and we had them for morning tea.

The cookie recipe made nearly 20, so on these I tried two colours of the same consistency, called drop-in technique apparently.  Using a toothpick I made the designs on the middle two biscuits, as per the magazine instructions.

This one is meant to look like hearts - it kinda does, right?

And the final one is just for me.  It reminds me of the children's nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake ;

Pat a cake, pat a cake baker's man,

make me a cake as fast as you can,

prick it and poke it and mark it with a B,

and put it in the oven for Baby and me.

Enjoy!

Lest we forget - ANZAC Day

As a schoolgirl, I was privileged enough to attend the girls' school that participated (at Year 10 level) in a remembrance service at The Shrine (of  Remembrance) in Melbourne on this day.  It was a great school, giving a great education, for many other reasons too.  Of course, I probably didn't appreciate it at the time but that's what happens when you're 15, isn't it? 
In fact, I distinctly remember being told off in front of the whole massed Year 10 from not only our school, but the boys school also, because the service was being televised and the teacher could see my blue basketball shorts (I had basketball practice after school that day) under my cotton schooldress! Oops, sit more discreetly Becca, honestly! 
For those of you who aren't Australian, or who don't know what ANZAC even stands for, here's some background information...
Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand, a rare instance of two sovereign countries not only sharing the same remembrance day, but making reference to both countries in its name. When war broke out in 1914, Australia and New Zealand had been dominions of the British Empire for thirteen and seven years respectively. 
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all those who served and died in military operations for their countries.
Thanks very much to Wikipedia.
And from the packet - Symbolising the enduring spirit of the Australian & New Zealand men and women, the ANZAC biscuit assumed an increasingly important role during World War 1.  Baked by the women at home using the only ingredients available - rolled oats, golden syrup and flour - this biscuit played a vital role in lifting morale of the soldiers and later, as a fund-raiser for the Red Cross.
A new friend, also an expat, who blogs here suggested I bake Anzac biscuits after reading and enjoying my Australia Day cupcakes on Jan 26th.  I have a few cakes due soon so in lieu of baking them myself, here are some I found in a shop.  Enjoy.

Peanut butter M&M cookies for Felix

We're off to see our friend Felix tomorrow, and his mum is offering lunch with our playdate.  I offered to bring something, and she suggested dessert.  Not a problem!

We haven't been shopping since the weekend before last, as we found many years ago that shopping weekly worked for us, and have a list on the fridge for additions throughout the week.  So with regard to what to bake and bring, it necessitated a quick scour of the ingredients and dredge of the memory to figure it out.  And cookies won!

The recipe is scribbled on a torn back of orange envelope and stuck into a blue book - seriously.  My friend Catherine copied it out of her Guardian weekend supplement many years ago, once we'd successfully made it with our then just-turned-two year old Mini-1's.  It's a quick, easy and basic recipe using flour, baking powder, two sugars, a bit of butter and roughly 100g of 'extras' - in this evening's case they were M&M's and a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.  Other times they've been chopped apricots, oats, choc chips, lemon zest etc etc.

I had checked with the girls earlier in the day to see if they wanted to help make them, but both said no, because they didn't want to share them!  Not very charitable at all, and not the way we'd like them to think.  Suffice it to say, I started baking once they were in bed/asleep.

And a mere hour later (most of which time was taken up with 4-5 batches at 9 minutes each) we have the delight that is nearly 4 dozen small coloured-dot-studded cookies - yummy!

Peanut and chocolate chip cookies

Thanks to the Banoffee pie we made as a treat for Mr Becca a few days ago, we had condensed milk to use up.  I went onto the Carnation website for inspiration and found this recipe for Hazelnut and Choc Chunk cookies. 

It used a method that I've read of, but never used before, and sounded easy enough for myself and Mini-2 to manage on a quiet morning before lunch and nursery.  So off we went...

The mix wasn't actually that gloopy, despite the addition of the condensed milk, and with the peanuts (we didn't have any hazelnuts in the cupboard) and chocolate chips (they're much faster to add than chopping up a bar of chocolate, and much more fun for Mini-2 to pinch) it smelled amazing and looked so good.  But it had go into the fridge to chill for at least half an hour, and up to a week, so we did Peppa Pig jigsaws whilst waiting.  (Actually, she did them all herself, they're a bit too easy for her now, which gives me a great idea for a birthday gift).

Then on to the cutting and baking of the cookies...

You see here Mini-2 wearing her current favourite stripy trousers and 101 Dalmations jumper, cutting rounds for baking.  And here we see those rounds ready to be baked...

Mmmm, full of big chunks of peanut and chocolate.  A mere quarter hour and a fantastic smelling house later, we got these lovelies out of the oven.

They tasted amazing, and we have one and a half sausages of cookie-mix in the fridge for later.  I shall try more every few days to see how the mix bakes up

National Cupcake Week, UK

Well will you look at that?  We have a National Cupcake Week.  A bit of nonsense, really, but fun nonetheless.  Thus I made Cookies & Creme cupcakes today, while the girls were off being educated. 

I got to bash out my frustrations on poor, defenceless Oreo cookies then added more than the recipe suggested to the batter - the last time they simply didn't have enough cookie in them we thought.

Looks like a lot, right?

(a gratuitous shot of the lovely 'messy' biscuits, mmmm)

I also felt that I wanted more cookie, so crushed up more cookie to add into the vanilla buttercream icing.  Here's a wee before and after shot...

I used a wide plain nozzle to pipe on the icing, trying to emulate Georgetown Cupcake 's signature swirl.  But I didn't allow for some of the cookie crumbs to be larger than the nozzle aperture.  So some of the swirls simply weren't as tidy as I would have liked.

Still they tasted amazing, so that's the main thing - right?

Hummingbird Peanut Butter Cookies

We had some time to spare today, so took a group decision to bake something for our friends visiting tomorrow.  Mini 1 wanted to do nothing, because she believes we share too much and there's never enough for her to have thirds and fourths.  Mini 2 suggested 'muffins, because we haven't done them in ages' but I pointed out that we hadn't done biscuits in ages either, and so took an Executive Decision.  Biscuits it was.

Off to find the recipe that one of our Facebook fans mentioned, from the first Hummingbird book.  It seemed quick and easy, which is always a bonus with young children (for those of you without some of your own, they have a short attention span).  We weighed out and mixed up the ingredients and put in a bit extra of chocolate chips (our pack had 100g and the recipe only required 75g, but I felt that the kids really didn't need to eat a full 25g of chocolate, hence the addition to the mix).  The recipe stated it would make 24, but I didn't want the cookies to be too large.  As it turned out, they were a good size and we got 60!!!

So enough for all the children, plus plenty extra for the Mum's to enjoy with a mug of coffee...

or a cup of tea, ha ha

Cinnamon blueberry biscuits with Ava

After playing in the backyard/doing housework, we decided to make another recipe using Flora Cuisine liquid butter.  This time the recipe was (from a supermarket magazine again) for Cinnamon raisin biscuits.  I don't like raisins, but love dried blueberries so we used them instead.  I got all the ingredients and equipment ready, then the girls climbed onto a chair to watch me add the dry then wet ingredients into the bowl.  Then over to the kitchen table for some enthusiastic 3 and 4 year old mixing with a wooden spoon.  The girls are neighbours and nursery classmates, and shared the tasks really well.  Here we see Ava spooning the mix onto the baking tray to make 12 biscuits.  A mere 9 minutes in the oven later and we have, ta da!!

Great smelling (biscuits and kitchen), slightly healthier than average and great tasting mini biscuits.  A great way to spend a morning, and a perfect afternoon tea snack.  Well done girls.

Looks aren't everything

We found out at short notice that a friend of mini-Becca #2's from nursery could come over to play this morning.  We decided we'd like to make biscuits for her and her mum for morning tea, dotted with mini Smarties and choc honeycomb chunks.  We only had 40 minutes until they were due, and this was just the right amount of time in which to weigh, mix and bake the cookies.  I don't think the problem here was time, but rather too much mix per cookie.  I had recently bought us a portioning tool (i.e. an old-style ice-cream scoop) and used this to decide how much mix per dollop - bad move.  The old-fashioned method of a heaped teaspoon would have been fine.  Still, they went down a storm with Ava and her Mummy, us, our Daddy and with Billy the reptile man after school (but that's a whole other story)...