baking

Fudgy Nutella Biscuits

Posted on January 22, 2013January 23, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I’d like to say I could improve this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen , but I can’t. It’s practically perfect in nearly every way.

I didn’t think it was going to work. When I mixed it with the hand mixer it just went everywhere.
So I kneaded it a bit before putting it in the freezer.

Even once it was in the oven after 10 minutes it didn’t look right. But I smushed it down a bit (that’s a technical term) and bung it in the oven for a bit longer.

I thought the sea salt was a touch of genius, but the other half didn’t agree and thought I was mad.
If he wants biscuits without sea salt he can make them himself.
Ok that’s a bit harsh, but don’t mess with genius.

Nutella biscuits to solve all ones problems.

I hate bananas (but these passion fruit and banana muffins are good. Apparently.)

Posted on August 14, 2012August 18, 2012 by bekswhoknits

It’s horrible baking something that you can’t eat.

I really don’t like bananas. I dislike the smell of them so much that I have been known to throw up.

So while my boyfriend was away for the weekend, the bananas we had in the house got smellier and smellier. They were getting to the end of their life.
I detest throwing out food. So I decided to be brave and make it into something.

So I found a recipe for banana muffins. which looked relatively straight forward.

So I made one variation to the recipe which was to use passion fruit Greek yoghurt.
Apparently this was a welcome addition.

It does feel really weird blogging about a recipe that I haven’t tasted myself.

But I am assured that it worked.

the ingredients
1 banana (mushed)
1/2 cup passion fruit flavoured natural yoghurt
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 & 1/4 cup self raising flour

the recipe
Mush the banana.
Add the yoghurt, sugar, olive oil, and egg and mix together.

Add the flour and mix gently (try just 1 cup to begin, but add the extra 1/4 cup if necessary).

Spoon into a muffin tray and bake for 25 minutes in a 180 degree oven.
Or until they look cooked. They should spring to the touch.

I never thought I would feature a banana based recipe on my blog. And I would love to have a non biased opinion on these banana and passion fruit muffins.

Peanut butter cookies

Posted on June 26, 2012June 26, 2012 by bekswhoknits

My sweet tooth has been playing up recently.

It’s getting to the point where I’m snacking on chocolate at 2:30 (on the dot!) most afternoons.
And I’m buying chocolate from the many multitudes of fundraising chockies in the lunchroom.

So I thought I’d bake something.

There’s a cozy casserole heating up the kitchen, and now there’s some peanut butter biscuits.

I love this recipe. It’s 4 ingredients. Which are probably all in your cupboard right now.

Which makes this a great recipe to pull out when you have visitors on their way over, or when you want something quick to make while you have a casserole in the oven.

Go forth – bake!!

(and if you’re in the Perth area, Col Panna has a giveaway on at the moment – check it out!)

Just another boring weekend

Posted on June 25, 2012June 25, 2012 by bekswhoknits

But that was just why I wanted.

I rediscovered Enid Blyton and spent Saturday reading the entire St Clare’s series.
As a result, smashing and cracking as adjectives have crept into my vocabulary.

I also watched this wonderful famous five parody.

I rediscovered tumblr thanks to the new iPhone app. Hello wasted hour’s of looking at doctor who tags.
find me here

I also finished my first item for my etsy store!!!

That’s the really exciting one.
I also failed at making a sponge cake. I turned it out and it was still liquid in the middle even though it was brown on the outside. It got tipped back into the pan and back into the oven. Needless to say it was very flat.
Even the whipped cream on top didn’t whip.
But they say practice makes perfect. I may just try again.

baked goods

Posted on April 3, 2012April 5, 2012 by bekswhoknits

There’s not much of a backstory here, except last night we had a power failure.
Fortunately we have a gas oven and dinner was already cooking. But to fill the time I decided to look up something else to bake.
And I found this recipe.

It was amusing cooking with a head torch on in my own kitchen.
We eventually did get the power on but it was rather close to bedtime, so these photos are taken at work. And they do not do these muffins justice.

I adapated to make some simple sweet muffins.
this may be my new default muffin recipe. I like how the brown sugar gives it a caramel taste, which is dense but not too overpowering.

the ingredients
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or milk and lemon juice)
100g melted butter
1 egg
1 cup of chocolate chips

the method
Sift the flour and brown sugar into a bowl.
Make the buttermilk (I used regular milk and added some lemon juice, but apparently vinegar works well too).
Add the melted butter and the egg to the milk mixture.
Add the liquid to the flour and sugar. Then add the chocolate chips.
Mix until combined, and then spoon into a muffin tray.

Cook in a 180 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

I think this would also be wonderful with frozen berries. I can’t wait to make these again.

They’re also really good with hot custard.

The magic box

Posted on March 6, 2012February 22, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I have discovered the joys of online shopping, and I love it.
I despise food shopping. I walk into a shop, forget everything i’m meant to buy (even if I do have a list), panic and make bad decisions.
I’m almost as bad at online shopping (it is a running joke, but it’s better to be bad at online shopping than have no shopping done) but it makes me a lot less grumpy.

I still have to take my time and read all the descriptions. Last week I bought store brand milk arrowroots (I don’t buy store brands as a matter of principal – I don’t support monopolies), this week I bought a giant tin of condensed tomato soup. I have difficulties with quantities.

It probably doesn’t help that when I placed the order I was feeling very under the weather, so we ended up with a lot of comfort food.
But there’s always some reason. Usually because at home food shopping and wine go very well together. And pajamas. Food shopping is bearable with pajamas and wine.

But one of the things apart from the convenience is the choices I don’t have to make.
Every week now I buy a fruit and vegetable box of seasonal vegetables.
It’s like a goody bag of things to cook with for the week.
So each week new things to try and new gluts to figure out what to do with. I now have 7 bulbs of garlic! (I’m still chasing ideas for that one)
But I did have success with the excess carrots. Carrot cakes.

Super duper easy recipe adapted from taste.com.au carrot and poppy seed muffins it would have been better with poppy seeds though.

the ingredients
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour, sifted
3/4 cup (165g) brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup (160ml) extra virgin olive oil
2 cups finely grated carrot (about 4 carrots)

the method
Combine the self-raising flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.

Combine the eggs and olive oil in a different bowl.
Combine the wet and dry together and then add the grated carrots.

Divide into greased muffin trays and bake in 180deg oven for 25-30 minutes.

All done!!

These got rave reviews and a request to make more very soon.

Tasty business meetings

Posted on February 23, 2012February 27, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Attached forthwith are the minutes of the last meeting (at Sherbert).
A berry sponge cake, a chocolate brownie, and a polenta cake.

Of course the actual minutes were a lot more detailed. Even though I think my work is really interesting, I’m pretty sure not many other people would share my enthusiasm. That and it’s not a subject for the internets. Some anonymity is nice.

Perfect spot for a good coffee and cake.

cherry ripe cupcakes

Posted on November 23, 2011November 23, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I work with cake lovers.
Every occasion is celebrated with cake.
You’re the new starter? You bring cake.
It’s your birthday? You bring cake.
You happened to swing past the cake shop on your way to work? You bring cake.
You do something noteworthy at work? You bring cake.

In my case, I’m leaving.
Which means I have to bring cake.

So I made a batch of Red Velvet cupcakes, and a batch of cherry ripe cupcakes.

Taste.com.au has the super easy recipe which I made into a cherry ripe cupcakes.

What you need
The Cupcakes
2 cups Self Raising Flour
¾ cup castor sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs
125 g melted butter
¾ cup milk
2 (50g) packets glace cherries (chopped)

The Icing
400g icing sugar
50g soft butter
200g cream cheese
½ cup desiccated coconut.

The Method
Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder) in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
Mix wet ingredients (eggs, butter, milk) together and then pour into dry ingredients.
Stir until just combined and then add the glace cherries.

Pour into patty cake lined cupcake tray.
Place in 200deg oven for 20 – 25 minutes.

While that’s in the oven make the icing.

With a mixer beat the butter and the icing sugar together.
Once that’s started to cream together, add the cream cheese until it looks smooth.
Add the coconut.

You need to wait for the cupcakes to cool before you can ice them – but once they’re iced, mmmm.

Red velvet cupcakes

Posted on November 15, 2011November 23, 2011 by bekswhoknits

this wonderful recipe for velvet cupcakes is divine.
Not that i’ve done extensive research, but my first try at red velvet was a success and i’m blaming this recipe.

Or mostly the recipe to turn ordinary milk into buttermilk.
I am never prepared enough to buy (or remember to buy) all the ingredients for a recipe. And buttermilk always seems like a waste unless I’m planning on baking scones and pancakes in one week.

So that pretty much sold the recipe. And my oh my it was delicious.

To the point that I baked them before dinner, iced them just before going to knitting group, and when I got home there was three missing.
They were really good.

Om nom nom nom.

When only biscuits will do

Posted on November 8, 2011November 8, 2011 by bekswhoknits

a basic biscuit recipe with three variations.

The first one has chai latte tea in it.
I only had chai tea bags so I tried to dilute it as much as possible.

The second ones have a hershey’s kiss on top of them.

The third ones have choc mint flavoring. Well choc mint drinking chocolate, and lots of it to flavour it.

I have no idea what we’re having for dinner but we have biscuits.

Here’s my amended recipe for chocolate mint biscuits

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons chocolate mint powder
1 tablespoon milk

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk, chocolate mint powder, and stir until just combined.

Spoon onto baking trays.
Place a Hershey’s Kiss on top of of each biscuit. Alternatively squish top of biscuit with a fork.

Cook in oven for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea. Or mug of hot chocolate mint drink for extra indulgence.