Chocolate, Coconut, Weetbix slice, Lemon Polenta cake and Choc chip cookies

Made these recipes a while ago now. Major lack of photo taking was involved and only remembered to take a pic of the final product when we got down to the last few pieces.

I've recently been watching a lot of cable tv, particularly the food channels, and recently heard mention of polenta and realised I'd never tried it. So went and bought some and googled polenta cake. I wanted to avoid the one with oil so this was it!

Also wanted to bring something in to work and decided to make the popular weetbix slice.

I also made some choc chip m&m cookies before xmas but unfortunately didn't take any pics of the beauties.

Nigella's Tangy Lemon Polenta Cake

Ingredients

Cake
250g butter, softened
Rind of 2 lemons, finely grated
1C caster sugar
3 eggs separated
1/4 C lemon juice
 150g almond meal (1 1/2C)
1C fine polenta


Syrup
1/4C icing sugar
1/4C lemon juice

Method
1. Preheat oven to 140C fan-forced. Line a 20cm diameter round cake tin.

2. Beat butter, rind and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. Slowly add the egg yolks, beating well.

4. Stir in the juice, almonds and polenta.

5. Whip/beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Carefully fold this into the polenta mixture.

6. Spread into tin and bake for 1hr or until skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

7. Meanwhile, boil the lemon juice and sugar (syrup ingredients), stirring until sugar dissolves.

8. Poke holes with skewer all over hot cake and spoon syrup all over the top.

Verdict
At first I ate this warm with a little honey but wasn't too keen on it. Later I had a cold slice from the fridge and liked it much better. This is truly quite tangy so you have to be a lemon-lover. Will probably try a different recipe next time. Next I'll make a chocolate polenta cake though.

Chocolate & coconut slice

Ingredients
 
3 weetbix or equivalent
1C desiccated coconut
1/2C caster sugar
1C SR flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
150g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2C icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
2-3 tbsp hot water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line a 16x26cm baking pan.

2. Break up biscuits finely. Place into a mixing bowl with coconut and sugar.

3. Sift flour and cocoa over the weetbix mix and stir.

4. Melt butter in a small saucepan over a low heat (or microwave) then pour over dry ingredients.

5. Add vanilla. Mix well.

6. Spoon mixture into pan and press down to level. Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked.

7. Meanwhile sift icing sugar and cocoa into a small bowl. Add water and stir well. Ice slice while still hot. Cut into squares to serve.

Verdict
Nice! A little crumbly so would probably add extra butter next time and make sure the weetbix was crushed quite finely. Had trouble with the icing too for some reason and had to add extra water. The slice had cooled a bit too before I iced it which may also have caused my issues with spreading it.


Jaay's Best Ever Choc Chip cookies

Ingredients - makes at least 30 large cookies

2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4C unsalted butter, melted
1C packed brown sugar
1/2C caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2C semisweet chocolate chips (or any mix of nuts/choc/candies etc - I used 1C milk choc chips and 1C red and green m&ms for an xmas theme)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140C fan-forced. Line baking trays (at least two - there will be many batches).

2. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

3. Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy.

4. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks

6. Drop 1/4 cup of the dough (I'd recommend less as they spread MAJORLY) onto baking trays, at least 5cm apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes.

7. Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven (this is important… they fall apart if you move them too quickly). Once they cool a few minutes, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Verdict
A-freaking-mazing. That is all.

Next up - cinnamon buns

Gingerbread #2

I've been thinking about making a (my first) gingerbread house this Christmas so have been wanting to try another recipe to see whether it is any better than this one. I was after something more spicy.

When I was younger there was a lovely little shop (that sadly closed) down the road that sold the most perfect, spicy, firm gingerbread cookies and I've been wanting to recreate them ever since. This recipe includes ground black pepper and a greater percentage of all the other spices so it is definitely promising!

Gingerbread Man Cookies from 101 Cookbooks

My version - halved

2 C plain flour

1.5/4 (3/8) tsp bicarb soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

75g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 C brown sugar, firmly packed

1 1/2 large eggs (2 small eggs would be fine)

1/3 C molasses

 Method

1. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl by hand (or with an electric mixer) cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. 

3. Add the sugar and mix again until light and creamy. 

4. Blend in the eggs one at a time and then the molasses. 

5. Add the flour mixture in two additions either by hand or on low speed. 

6. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap each in plastic and chill for an hour or so (as this is half the original recipe I didn't bother dividing it into two).

7. Heat oven to 160C fan-forced, place the racks in the middle, and line a couple baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.

8. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop to roughly 1cm thick (I prefer mine closer to 0.5cm as they rise a bit and was after a firmer cookie this time, although soft gingerbread is lovely too) and cut into gingerbread men (or other desired shapes). 

What a mess!

 9. Transfer to baking sheets. Sprinkle with granulated sugar (optional) and bake for 7 -10 minutes (for 3-4-inch cookies), less for smaller cookies, more for larger.

10. Cool on tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

- It's important not to over-bake these as they will dry out.

- The original recipe used whole wheat flour, unsulphured blackstrap molasses and dark natural cane sugar.
- This halved recipe made30-40 biscuits!

Verdict
Spicy! Finally. The first tray I made were a bit too soft (for my liking) so left the second and third trays in for 8-9mins rather than 7.

Will be making caramel slices again later this week to give to a friend as part of her birthday pressie. Might try a few things differently so will post about it if I get the chance.

Shortbread

Let the celebaking begin! Exams are all done and I've been busy celebrating with friends and finally doing some shopping etc etc and of course baking.

I've never made shortbread before so wanted to give it a shot seeing as Christmas is fast approaching. It's a pretty festive biscuit so might make a nice gift if I can find a perfect recipe.

Classic Shortbread from Bake It

My version


Ingredients
225g butter, softened to room temperature
115g (1/2 C) caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
225g (1 3/4 C) plain flour
115g (2/3 C) rice flour
pinch of salt
dash of vanilla essence (not in original recipe)

Method


1. Preheat oven to 170C fan-forced.

2. Grease or line (baking paper) one large or two small slice tins or baking trays.

3. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium with an electric beater until pale and fluffy. Add a dash of vanilla if desired and beat in.

4. Sift the two flours into the butter/sugar bowl and add a pinch of salt.

5. Mix together gently with a wooden spoon or using fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

6. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead gently to form a soft dough.

7. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

8. There are two options at this point:

          a) Divide the dough in half and roll out one half on a lightly floured work surface to form a 20cm round. Carefully transfer to a prepared tray. Repeat for second round.

          b) Press the dough evenly into slice tin(s)

9. Using a sharp knife, score the surface of the dough into wedges or rectangles and prick the surface lightly with a fork and if making rounds, press the edges to form a fluted effect.

10. Lightly dust the shortbreads with the extra sugar.

11. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the shortbreads are light golden. Remove from the oven while still hot, follow the score marks and cut into wedges or triangles.

12. Cool in tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

It will keep, stored in an airtight container, for up to 1 week.
It can be made with plain flour alone; however, the addition of rice flour produces a lighter result.

Verdict
Turned out quite nice. Thick; next time I will use another pan or make the rounds. Nice crumbly texture - I'm not sure if it's too crumbly. Dad gave it the thumbs up though. Good flavour although I might add a touch more vanilla next time or even some maple syrup like in this recipe.

Will hopefully bake again early next week!

Gingerbread men, snails and bears

After trawling the internet for some time I finally came across a gingerbread recipe that sounded like a winner. I love really spicy gingerbread and came across this recipe. I read through some of the 600+ comments and decided to add a bit more spice and flour and use brown sugar instead of white.

Results: quite a dry, crumbly dough prior to refrigeration. I used my hands to mix it thoroughly. After it's time in the fridge it seemed a lot moister and was fairly easy to roll out and had to use a bit of flour/icing sugar to prevent sticking. Final product = soft and fairly spicy. Yay! Next time I will use a little less flour to reduce some of the dryness (although the final product was quite perfect in terms of texture). I think I'll also add a bit more cinnamon and give some ground black pepper a shot to really spice it up.

My version:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (approx 115g)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup treacle
1 egg yolk (save white for icing)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted (2 1/3 next time)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (1 1/2 or 2 next time)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Royal Icing
1 egg white
1 cup of icing sugar
Dash of vanilla essence and food dye as desired

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in treacle and egg yolk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg. Blend the flour mixture into the treacle mixture until smooth (using hands as necessary but don't over-work the mixture). Wrap in gladwrap and chill for at least one hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. On a lightly floured/iced surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies approx 2 cm apart on trays lined with baking paper.

3. Bake for 7-10 minutes in the oven until firm. Remove from cookie sheets after a few minutes to cool on wire racks. Ice when cool.

Icing
1. Beat egg white with electric mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.
2. Slowly add icing sugar and beat well after each addition. Once all the icing sugar has been added, continue beating at a high speed until firm peaks form. Beat in vanilla essence and food dye if desired.

Next up: father's day cake