Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is another favourite recipe of mine. There is nothing better than eating a cookie still warm from the oven. The recipe came from somewhere within my mum's recipe collection so I'm not sure of it's origin. I do know that it has been around for a while because I remember these from my childhood. I like to keep the rolled out dough in the freezer so at a moments notice I can have them baking in the oven without over indulging and eating an entire batch in one day.

More recently I have experimented a little with it, mainly through the addition of oreo cookies and butterscotch chips. Oreo chocolate chips have cropped up on various food blogs and the idea is to cover an oreo in chocolate chip cookie dough baking the oreo inside. It's a cookie within a cookie! I have also been using a mixture of different chocolate and butterscotch chips and as always adding slightly more than suggested (without overloading the dough with chocolate!)


Chocolate Chip Cookies

125 g butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 ¾ cup self raising flour
1 tsp cocoa
½ tsp salt
100 g chocolate chips (Dark, Milk or White Chocolate)

Cream butter, sugars and vanilla. Add egg and beat well. Mix in sifted flour, salt and cocoa. Add chocolate chips and mix until the dough comes together.
Roll 1 Tbsp of dough into balls and lightly press with a floured fork. (If freezing, place rolled out cookies into the freezer.)
Bake at 190°C for 12-15 min.



To make Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies: 
Shape the dough around an Oreo cookie and place on a greased tray. Chill for 30 mins in fridge.

Bake at 190°C for 12-15 min.

Cookie-ception

Friday, July 18, 2014

Belgium Biscuits

I am finally getting around to posting again! It’s been a lot harder than first thought. Having free time to bake I had grand intentions of spending more time posting my creations. So I have decided that a good way to get back into blogging is to write a post about my favourite recipe!


Belgium biscuits, derived from Empire biscuits, are a delicious combination of sugar and spice. I can remember taking these biscuits to school in my lunch box and was possibly one of the first things I learnt to cook. They may also be the culprits behind the scar on my left hand after touching the hot tray straight out of the oven! (Mum did tell me not to touch the tray.) I could go on and on about how awesome they are but suffice to say I love them.
Since I left New Zealand 5 months ago I have been thinking about all the kiwi treats that I would make on a regular basis and which I can make now in Canada. Unfortunately things like Lolly cake are almost impossible, (I’m working on it.) Lucky for me I can still make Belgium biscuits, and I’m probably still not going to share any!

This recipe comes from the Edmonds Cookery Book. Considered to be essential for every kiwi kitchen. My copy didn’t make it across the world with me, however all my favourite recipes from it did!


Belgium Biscuits

125 g butter
75 g brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg
225 g flour
1 tsp baking powder


Preheat oven to 180 C. Cream butter, sugar and spices until smooth and lighted in colour. Add egg while beating. Mix in flour and baking powder until dough comes together. Roll out on a floured board and cut into rounds. Place on baking tray and bake for 15-17 min until slightly brown. Cool the biscuits completely before sandwiching together with raspberry jam. Top the biscuits with icing.