White chocolate and macadamia cookies (From Taste website)

I found this recipe from the Taste website and have tried baking it twice. The first attempt wasn't too bad, it was tasty but I felt the cookies looked a little pale and slightly doughy in the middle. This was because I decided to set the oven at 170C instead of the 180C as stated in the recipe. Even with that, my cookies were rated well by all who tasted them.

So I had another go on another weekend and this time, I set the oven to 180C. The cookies turned out beautifully, not doughy at all and had a healthy brown colour to it. I set out to hand them to 3 different sets of friends, all of which came back with 'delicious' as the feedback.

Yummy Salted Caramel Cookies

My friend CW gave me a little bag of goodies a few weeks ago to try out. They were these delicious Salted Caramel Cookies and I absolutely loved the salty and sweet flavours of the cookies. I couldn't stop eating them.

So when she finally blogged about it, I had to try my hand at baking them. The recipe originates from another blogger The Suz Chef (The Suz Chef's Salted Caramel Cookies) and CW did some minor tweaking to it when she mentioned it in her blog post (WanGirls Salted Caramel Cookies).

My first batch of cookies!

Well, I have tried them out and I am happy to say I think I did alright. I made enough to give out a few bags to some friends and the feedback so far has been very positive! One more recipe to add to my list of baking recipes!! The version I made was based on CW's tweaking but a shout out to The Suz Chef for the wonderful original recipe!!!!

Ingredients
175g butter, melted and cooled
2 cups self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 tbsp vanilla essence)
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
Caramel chips (approx 1 cup)
Salt flakes

Method

1. Preheat over to 170C and line 2 to 3 cookie trays with baking paper.
2. In a bowl, beat the melted butter and the two sugars until well combined.
3. Add the vanilla extract (or essence), the egg and egg yolk, beat again for at least another minute.
4. Sift the flour with the salt into the bowl and beat until all is well combined. This may take another 2 minutes.
5. Add the caramel chips and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
6. Use a teaspoon to drop balls of batter onto the baking trays. Please ensure they are well spaced as the cookies do spread out during the baking. (Note: If you want jumbo sized cookies, use a tablespoon instead).
7. Add more caramel chips onto the top of the batter (they look quite nice once biscuits are cooked). On average, I added about 2 to 3 more chips on top of each batter drop.
8. Then top with finely ground salt flakes on each cookie.
9. Bake 2 trays at a time in the oven for 5 minutes, then swap the trays from the top rack to the bottom rack and vice versa for another 5 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven, leave to sit in the trays for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool down completely.

The new Caramel Bits from Nestle!

I ended up baking 5 trays (medium sized trays) and had about 45 cookies. Hope you have as much fun as I had and that you find them delicious too!

Cheers....

Cinnamon, Cherry and Pear Muffins

This recipe is sourced from the Taste website. I have tried it a couple of times and have found it to be a good one to keep. Bear in mind that the ingredients listed is designed for 4 muffins. When I made for 8, I literally doubled the amounts of each ingredient.

Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons caster sugar
50g reduced-fat canola spread, melted, cooled
1/3 cup skim milk
1 egg
1/2 cup canned seedless black cherries, drained, halved
1/2 cup canned pears, drained, chopped
pure icing sugar, to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Lightly grease four 3/4-cup capacity texas muffin pan holes (I used muffin wraps instead).
3. Combine flour, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre.
5. Whisk melted spread, milk and egg in a jug (I used a glass bowl).
6. Pour into well.
7. Add cherries and pears.
8. Stir gently using a large metal spoon until just combined (do not over-mix).
9. Three-quarter fill each muffin hole with mixture.
10. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Stand muffins in pan for 4 minutes.
12. Turn out onto wire rack to cool slightly.
13. Dust with icing sugar.
14. Serve warm.

Taste website: www.taste.com.au

Chocolate, Cherry and Sour Cream Muffins

I recently celebrated the purchase of my new stove by attempting to bake some muffins. Bearing in mind that I have not baked in over 14 years (not having a working oven was part of the problem), I was a little anxious at how the muffins would turn out.

I found the recipe in the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens March 2012 and the recipe was a Bulla Advertising Feature courtesy of George Calombaris. I made only a couple of minor adjustments to it but the recipe source is from Bulla and George Colombaris.

The muffins - sorry the picture is not pretty!

275ml Bulla Premium Sour Cream (note that I used lite sour cream)
350g plain flour
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten (note that I used free range)
180ml extra virgin olive oil
150g dark chocolate buttons (55% cocoa) (Note that I could only find 43% cocoa)
1 x 450g can pitted cherries, drained and cut in half

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C fan-forced.
2. Line two 6-cup Texas muffin pans with paper cups.
3. Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and caster sugar into a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, extra virgin olive oil and sour cream until smooth.
5. Gently fold wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
6. Fold dark chocolate buttons and cherries into the mixture. Spoon mixture into paper cups.
7. Bake muffins for 25-28 minutes. Remove from the muffin pans and cool onto a wire rack.

Make 12 large muffins

Note: As this was my first baking experince in years, I found out that the lower tray cooked faster than the top tray. Eventually it all worked out but on average my baking time was more like 35 to 40 minutes. I did forget to sprinkle some icing sugar but the verdict from my work colleagues was 'yummy', 'delicious' and there were requests for 'more please'. So I guess I did well.

I hope you enjoy these too if you decide to try the recipe out. Thanks George C and Bulla!

Cheers....