Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Kiwi or North American?

Spot the difference…

North American cookies tend to be softer and sweeter than Kiwi biscuits to generalise here.  North American cookie dough for chocolate chip cookies doesn’t need to be squashed down with a fork before baking.

I think I should point out that I used high grade white flour for the North American version but with the Kiwi version I used wholemeal flour so they look different. Next batch of North American style I will try it with wholemeal and see what happens.

I wanted to make biscuits last night. I wanted to make Kiwi Crisps AKA Chocolate Chip Cookies/Biscuits. I really wanted to make them Kiwi style but I didn’t have condensed milk so I went to the internet and found another recipe. A soft biscuit recipe.
I think I may be switching my “LIKE” preference.
I think I prefer softer biscuits. Maybe it’s how I feel in summer? I’m not a dunker, although with the exception of perhaps gingernuts.  Maybe it’s because I recently visited my dentist and had a filing replaced that fell out at Christmas time has something to do with it? Hard to tell.

And explain to me why I have cravings for sweet things when I am trying to cut out sugar from my diet. It won’t be rid of overnight. I think it will happen gradually. I don’t believe in dieting. I believe in a lifestyle change. I have added tofu back into my diet. So if tofu comes in what unhealthy thing should I remove from my diet? Correction, reduce from my diet? Anyone can do something for a week or two and say look now I’m x kilograms less now. Yippee. But then they return to their old habits and it just causes heartache literally and figuratively. I would rather change bits for the better and make it a keeper of a change. For example I never have fizzy drink, soft drinks or soda. The only fizzy thing I drink is soda water. That was a change I made many years ago, and I have never looked back. I don’t buy fruit juice, too much sugar, but I make my own with a blend of vegetable juice. That way it’s fresh and I know what goes into it. I sidetracked myself. So what should I reduce from my diet? Hints anyone?

I need to get back to exercise again. Someone I follow is doing SPIN CLASSES. I am inspired to move. Now up till now I didn’t really understand exactly what a spin class really was.
Put down your coffee. Swallow.
….
I thought a spin class was like the spinning Dervishes. Mmmm. I never understood the interest apart from getting dizzy and falling over. I imagined all these people trying to remain in their area the size of a yoga mat while staring at a spot on the wall while pirouetting like a ballet dancer minus the toe pointing to wild classical music.  You can see I haven’t been inside a gym in a while. Now I get it. I feel back with the world again. Spin as in a spinning wheel of a bicycle. Ah well. Doesn’t seem so hard now. Perhaps I might be persuaded to get back in the saddle again.

Pear Crumble Filo Pie

I made a bacon and egg pie using bought filo pastry. Filo pastry is wonderful pastry to work with but you always, always end up having some leftover. I decided to make something sweet for afterwards and there were pears, wine, and crumble.
The pears were bought to go with cheese to go with wine. That never happened. The pears were forgotten until today. I peeled them and thought of poaching them in leftover wine. Nice. So the pears did match the wine eventually.

The pears were poached in red wine for about 10 minutes. I added cinnamon, cardamon and raw sugar. I had crumble leftover from making apple crumble and this was retrieved from the freezer.

Filo Pear Crumble Pie
Filo pastry
2 pears, peeled, cored, sliced
1/2 c red wine
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t cardamon
1/4 c raw sugar, more or less
vegetable oil
pastry brush or paper towel
crumble mix (see recipe below)
water, if needed

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
Place the pears in a pot on the stove with the wine covering with raw sugar, cinnamon and cardamon. Add water if needed.
Poach for about 10 minutes.
Remove the pears to cool.
Return the liquid to the pot and reduce down for 5-10 minutes. (Continue boiling.)
Prepare brush, oil and filo pastry, baking paper and 20cm round tin.
(If you don’t have a pastry brush, don’t fret you can use a paper towel to dab the pastry instead. Prepare a bowl with a little vegetable oil for the dabbing/brushing.)
Don’t worry about the sheets overflowing. Let them.
Place one sheet of filo pastry in the lined tin. Brush/dab with vegetable oil. Repeat.
I used about 5-6 uncut sheets. Place the pears on the filo pastry. Cover with crumble mix. Add 4-6 T of reduced juice over the crumble.
Fold the filo pastry up into the centre. It does not have to be neat. It should resemble crumpled up paper.

Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the filo pastry goes a nice golden brown.
The screwed up paper becomes a pie!

I did have photographs of a cut piece of pie with a dollop of ice cream but the results were blurry. Must have been the rush of not wanting to ruin the moment. You will just have to believe me that it was wonderful. Or do one better and try it for yourself.
I still have some filo pastry leftover. I think it will become a spinach pie but anything could happen.

Crumble Mix Recipe
3/4 c coconut
3/4 c rolled oats
3/4 c wholemeal flour
3/4 c raw sugar, more or less
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t cardamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
3/4 c melted butter
1 t vanilla essence

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the vanilla essence to the butter.
Mix all together. The mixture should be crumbly.
Set aside.
This makes a lot of mixture so freeze what you don’t use and bring it out when you want to make a quick dessert. Just place on top of fruit in an oven 180C (350F) for 25-30 minutes. Do not defrost the mixture. Just sprinkle on top.

Crumble recipe was adapted from all recipes au

Mini Gingerbread Men

The world’s largest gingerbread man maybe 20 feet long, but mine happens to be about as long as my thumb. I say long rather than tall because who has ever seen one standing? I don’t even bother icing mine, no nose, no eyes, no mouth, no buttons. Plain gingery gingerbread men. Perfect. In all honesty I can’t wait to ice them and when I do they end up with less than perfect eyes and then the rest goes downhill so I don’t bother. Taste is all important. It’s whats on the inside that counts.These little men are amazing.
I must admit that I left half of my mixture in the fridge overnight and it was hard the next day. With a little water and rolling pin action I was able to beat the dough into submission. Never mess with a person who holds either a knife or a rolling pin.
Now I tend to do one tray at a time. Cut out enough for one tray and put them straight into the oven and while I am cutting out the rest of the gingerbread men the first lot is ready. It is completely up to you how you do it. And watch out for the colour of the arms and legs, the hotter the oven the quicker they will brown. The original recipe says 10 minutes but my men are tiny so if the biscuits/cookies were bigger then 10 minutes would be about right. Start watching them from about 7 minutes.
Another tip is to use a sharp knife to slide under the dough to lift out the men.

Gingerbread Men
125g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup, raw sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1 egg yolk
2 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1 T ground ginger
1 t mixed spice
1 t baking soda

Preheat oven to 180°C.Prepare baking paper for two trays.

Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a 5cm gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 1cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.

Bake in oven for 7-8 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool unless you prefer to eat them as soon as they come out of the oven. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Gingerbread screaming cake

I have cravings for ginger at the moment. I decided to make gingerbread. We don’t call it a cake traditionally so I added the word in case someone thought I might mean gingerbread men. I want to make them too and decorate them with buttons, eyes and mouths. Another day. So to ginger, I wanted to add more ginger to the original recipe and I thought raw ginger. I grated a tablespoonful. Not enough this time round. I added 2 teaspoonfuls of ground ginger.  I want to have a cake that screams ginger. This version didn’t scream ginger, it didn’t sing ginger, it just said ginger.  In future I would add probably THREE tablespoonfuls or more of the raw ginger. I may even make my own crystalised ginger and add that too. I told you I wasn’t kidding about wanting a ginger screaming cake.
Golden syrup is an ingredient in the recipe and its made from processed sugar cane or beet. It looks like thick rich honey and doesn’t have the bitter taste of molasses or dark  treacle.
I followed the recipe and baked mine for 45 minutes and did the skewer test and it was gooey at the end so I kept it in for another 10 minutes. Did the skewer test again, clear,  so I took it out. Left it for 10 minutes then cut into it. It was just a little gooey in the very centre. We ate it anyway! I put it back in the turned off oven to cook further. Tasted great but you know what was missing. More ginger!
What did I learn today?
Skewer test in several spots on the cake, and aim at the centre.
The more ginger the better.

Gingerbread
125g butter
1/2 c raw sugar
1c golden syrup (light treacle)
1 egg, free range
2 1/2 c wholemeal flour
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
2-3 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1 -3 T ginger, raw grated
1 c water

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) fan bake mode.
Prepare a 20 cm square or round baking tin. Line the bottom with baking paper and grease the rest of the tin.
Cream butter and sugar in a bowl.
Warm syrup slightly until runny.
Beat into creamed mixture.
Add egg and beat well.
Place the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Stir into the creamed mixture, add alternatively with the water.
Pour mixture into the greased tin.
Bake for 45- 60 minutes.
Test the cake to see if it is ready by poking a bamboo skewer into the cake. If it comes back cleanly it is done.
Remove from the oven when ready.
Let sit for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.
Enjoy!

Thanks to Edmond’s Cookery Book 34th Edition p50 for the base for this recipe.

Date Scones with Plum Jam

Ingredients:
3 c wholemeal flour
6 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
50g butter
1 1/4 c milk, skim or low-fat
milk to brush the tops
3/4 c date, chopped
1 T raw sugar
1/2 t cinnamon
cinnamon and raw sugar mix, about 1 T total

Preheat the oven to 220C (420F).
Soak the dates in water for 5 minutes. Drain.
Add the wholemeal flour, baking powder, raw sugar and cinnamon and salt to a bowl.
Cut the butter into the dry ingredients to resemble fine breadcrumbs.
Add the dates, stir, then add the milk.
Mix quickly with a knife to make a soft dough.
Lightly knead.
Line a tray with baking paper.
Lightly flour a board or bench top and press the dough out to roughly the thickness of your thumb sideways. Either cut the scones into squares or use a cookie cutter.

Now that I am blogging presentation is more important so I opted for the cookie cutters.
Recipes say makes 12 but I got 16. Goes to show that my portions are naturally getting smaller.
Leave 2cm between scones.
Brush tops with milk, then add a mixture of cinnamon and raw sugar to the top of each scone.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Cut in half and serve buttered with jam.

Cool and place into plastic bags and place in the freezer. I use the sandwich size bags and get 4 scones to a bag. I froze three bags full. Freezing just helps me remove the temptation to eat more and helps for on days that I don’t have something already made.

Recipe base taken from Edmonds Cookery Book, Scones, p30 and modified to make it my own.

Chocolate Chippie Biscuits

AKA:

Kiwi Crisps
Chocolate Chip Biscuits
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

125g butter
1/4c raw sugar
2T sweetened condensed milk
few drops of vanilla essence
1 1/2c wholewheat flour
1t baking powder
1/4c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F, fan bake mode.
Cream butter and sugar, condensed milk and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
Add the wholewheat flour and baking powder.
Mix.
Add the chocolate chips.
 Mix well.
Make into tablepoonful balls.
Place on a tray lined with baking paper.
Flatten each biscuit with a wet fork.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Place on a metal rack to cool.
Store in a sealed container out of sight otherwise they will disappear quickly.

Makes 24.

The biscuits will be crisp and if they are light brown on the edges even better.

This recipe is a modified version from the Edmond’s Cookery Book 34th edition, p41.
I replaced white granulated sugar with raw and replaced plain flour with wholewheat flour to make it healthier.  🙂 
I also reduced the cooking time.

Tips:

• If the butter is hard, place it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften it.
• Run the tablespoon under a hot tap before you add the condensed milk.
• If the mixture is seems too dry add a tiny bit of water.
• Place a cup with water next to the tray so you can dip the fork into it to make the fork marks on the biscuits easily.
• Double the mixture and either make two batches or roll half of the uncooked mixture into a log, wrap and freeze. 

Next time you want something sweet to eat the hard work is already done.