As I sit here and write this post at 2.55pm, the mercury has risen to 43.3°C (110°F for all you Farenheit lovers out there) with the sun fiercely burning down and melting all residing in Melbourne. It is disgustingly hot, too hot even for the beach for an ocean dip and there is nothing left to do but to stay indoors and keep close to my new best friend, the air-conditioner.

I have been lounging around all day, feeling rather lethargic and lazy, but with that said, I had enough energy to turn the oven on and bake something to try keep my mind off the stifling heat. I didn’t want to make something too difficult, nor a recipe that involved numerous bowls and utensils as I really couldn’t be arsed with all the washing up in the heat. So one bowl macaroons it was.

This recipe is ridiculously easy. It’s basically a meringue-type base with coconut and almond meal mixed through, then shaped into small balls and baked. Once cooled, I like to sandwich them with raspberry jam, but they are still quite delicious eaten plain.

Coconut Macaroons with Raspberry Jam

Adapted from a recipe by Karen Martini found in Sunday Life.

2 large eggwhites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

100g caster sugar

50g ground almonds

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

200g shredded coconut (must be shredded; desiccated coconut will not work)

4 tablespoons raspberry jam

icing sugar, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper (saves washing!).
2. Beat eggwhites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and gradually add the sugar, beating continuously until mixture is thick and glossy. Fold in almond meal, salt and vanilla. Fold in the coconut.
3. Spoon walnut-sized dollops of mixture onto the prepared baking trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until pale golden and cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, sandwich together with raspberry jam and dust with icing sugar.

Makes around 24 macaroons; 12 sandwiched together.

Wash-up count: one bowl, the beaters, one spoon and a spatula :)

One of my most favourite goodies to bake and eat are cookies. They are always so simple to prepare, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee and I never feel guilty when I eat more than a few (as opposed to eating a huge chunk of cake or pie).

Four reasons why I love to make cookies:

• Cookies are so versatile and can be made with a myriad of flavours. They can be spicy with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg or rich with chocolate, coffee or vanilla.  They can be chunky with nuts, dried fruit, oats or chocolate. Sweet fillings such as caramel or jam can be used to sandwich them together, making them even more yummy!
• They are the simplest things to bake and with the average cooking time of around twelve minutes, you always get to eat a few while you wait for the other batches to cook.
• If they are roll out cookies, you can make them in any shape you like. It’s a great excuse to collect as many cookie-cutters as you can and fun edible shapes are perfect for kids.
• There is less washing up, as I never have to wash the trays as I use baking paper I just toss into the bin after I’m done. Huzzah!

Roll your sleeves up and try your hand at these delicious chocolate cocoa cookies.  They are so easy to make and even easier to eat. They especially go down very well with a tall glass of ice cold milk. Enjoy!

Double Chocolate Cookies

Recipe from ‘Simply Bill’ by Bill Granger.

250g unsalted butter, softened

350g brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 ½ cups (310g) plain flour

½ cup (60g) cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

350g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Beat together the butter and saugr until light and creamy. Add the vanilla and eggs and stir together well. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.
3. Place large spoonfuls of the mixture on paper-lined baking trays, leaving room for spreading.
4. Cook in batches for 15 minutes, until the bases are cooked. Cool on trays.

Makes around 40.

One of my all-time favourite baking books is Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home To Yours’. There is a great variety of recipes and the wonderfully written prose is easy and enjoyable to read. With each recipe, you also feel as if she’s in the kitchen with you, guiding you every step of the way.

With every recipe I have tried for this blog, from the Twice-Baked Almond Brioche, Peanut Butter Cookies and Dulce de Leche Duos to the pastry cream recipe for my yummy Mango Tart, each has turned out brilliantly and with great success.

My lucky streak ended yesterday when I tried to make her Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread Cookies and they turned out terribly. I even made them twice! On the first attempt, I followed her instructions step-by-step and they spread into one huge cookie slab! It tasted nice, but I didn’t want to chip away pieces of it to serve to my family (‘Jagged shortbread slab piece, anyone?’). On the second try, I actually popped the biscuit dough into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking, much like you would for pastry, in an attempt to stop the squares from spreading out into a huge rectangle as it did on the first try. It was much better, but the shortbread still spread out quite a bit and did not look anything like the cute little perfect sand-coloured squares in the photo. I wasn’t going to try it a third time, as I had already used 500 grams (!) of butter and I was kind of over baking the same thing twice in one day really.

Since the shortbread came out a little ugly, I wasn’t too happy with how they photographed either. They weren’t as thick as they were supposed to be and turned out way too dark. But, like all Dorie recipes, they tasted absolutely awesome. They were like any shortbread should be: buttery, crisp, sweet but too sweet.

Although my shortbread didn’t turn out like Ms. Greenspan’s, I haven’t given up on her recipes yet. Hopefully I’ll find some time to bake another Dorie recipe this week. Maybe her World Peace Cookies or Caramel Pots de Creme. I can’t wait!

Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread

If you decide to give these a go, hopefully yours don’t turn out crappy like mine :)

Adapted from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan in ‘Baking From My Home To Yours’.

1¼ cups plain flour

½ cup rice flour (or cornflour)

¼ teaspoon salt

pinch ground cloves

250g unsalted butter,room temperature

¾ cup light brown sugar

½ cup finely ground pecans

raw/demerara sugar, to sprinkle

1. Sift together the flour, rice flour, salt and cloves.
2. Beat the butter and sugr using a hand-held mixer or freestanding mixer on medium speed for around 3 minutes or until very smooth. Reduce the speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the pecans and give the mixer a couple of turns, just to mix the nuts through.
3. In between two large pieces of non-stick baking paper, roll the dough out to an approximately 24 x 28cm rectangle that’s 1.5cm thick. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
4. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Using a ruler and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 4cm squares. Transfer the squares to the prepared baking trays and prick each square twice with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle some raw sugar over each dough square. Place these two trays in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Position the oven racks to divide the oven into thirds.
5. Bake the biscuits for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. Dorie’s shortbread were beautifully pale. Mine were dark and ugly.
6. Cool the shortbread on a wire rack.

Meringues can be tricky things to make but it’s not as hard as it may seem. I’ve had friends call me in despair when their meringues have failed dismally (yes you Susie!) and when I posted these little mocha babies, I received quite a few emails and comments asking me for help on how to make them. Now I’m no expert on meringues, but I thought I’d write a short post with a few tips and tricks I’ve learnt over the years.

Here we go:

• Don’t use egg whites straight from the fridge. Egg whites should always be at room temperature as they are easier to whisk and more air can be incorporated.
• As a general rule, for one eggwhite, use the same amount of sugar as the weight of the egg. So, for a 60g egg, use 60g of sugar.
• The bowl in which you want to use to whip your egg whites must be spotlessly clean. It’s best to use a bowl made from either stainless steel, ceramic, glass or copper as plastic bowls can sometimes contain traces of fat and grease. Your utensils (i.e. spatula, beaters, whisk) should be spotlessly clean too.
• When adding the sugar to the egg whites, add it a tablespoon at a time whisking well in between each addition. After all the sugar is incorporated, whisk for around 3 minutes or until the mixture is super shiny, glossy and lusciously thick. At this stage the sugar should be completely dissolved. You can rub a little bit between your thumb and forefinger to check.

• Be careful not to overbeat the meringues as they will collapse whilst cooking and sugar droplets will form on the surface.
• Perfect meringues can be made using just egg whites and sugar, but it’s always nice to have a little help. The addition of cornflour helps to produce a chewy interior and the addition of white vinegar, or any other acid like lemon juice, helps to stabilise the egg whites.
• Baking time depends entirely on their size obviously, but for a general rule of thumb, bake them until they are crisp to touch. For smallish ones around 5cm in diameter, this should take around 30 minutes. For a really big pavlova, it will be around an hour and 15 minutes. Once the meringues are baked, allow them to cool in the switched-off oven until completely cold.
• As meringue mix is so light, I find that when I’m spooning or piping the mix onto the paper-lined trays, it tends to slide about and I can’t pipe properly. Quick fix: dab a little bit of sticky meringue mix onto each corner of the baking paper and affix it onto your tray. Instant glue!

Hopefully what I’ve shared with you can help if you have trouble making meringues. It just takes a little patience, care and remember the motto I follow, “go slow and low”. Always add the sugar slowly and bake them at a low temperature :)

Brown Sugar and Walnut Meringues

Adapted from a recipe found in Australian Women’s Weekly, April 2008.

4 egg whites

240g light brown sugar

1 cup (100g) walnuts, finely chopped

1 teaspoon cornflour

½ teaspoon white vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C (100°C if fan forced). Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl with an electric mixer or freestanding mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking until sugar well in between additions. Whisk for another 3 minutes until the mix is satiny shiny and thick.
3. Gently fold through ¾ cup of the walnuts, cornflour and vinegar.
4. Using a piping bag with a large plain nozzle, pipe the meringue mixture into small rounds approximately 5cm in diameter, around 3 centimetres apart, on the prepared trays. Sprinkle the tops of the meringues with the remaining walnuts.
5. Bake for around 25 minutes or until they are crisp to touch. Turn off the oven and allow to cool completely with the door slightly ajar for several hours until completely cold.

Makes around 40.

Why am I such a complete and total scatterbrain? Three days ago I left my wallet on the train. Yep, I lost my wallet, with all my cards, cash, gift vouchers and a few other bits and pieces.

Let me tell you what happened and you will see why I’m such an idiot…

After my Spanish class in the city on Tuesday, I was running rather late for the train. As I was sprinting to the station, I pulled my wallet out of my handbag, quickly whipped out my ticket, popped it in the ticket machine and kept running towards the train. I made it just as the doors were about to close and I plonked myself on a double-seater in the corner of the train carriage. At this stage, I had my handbag over my shoulder, my wallet in one hand and my books cradled under the opposite arm. Absolutely puffed, I threw my bag onto the adjacent seat and threw the wallet on top. I sat down, opened up my workbook for revision and after twenty minutes of being totally engrossed and half confused with irregular verbs, I picked up my bag and departed the train at my station, leaving the wallet on the seat.

As I got off the platform, I walked to my car in the parking bay and drove to the supermarket. I reached inside my handbag to get take my wallet out and it was at that moment I realised I had left it on the train. My first reaction? “Oh no oh no oh no!” After 5 seconds of thought, “Fuck fuck fuck!!!!!!” (I curse a lot). I was sooooo annoyed with myself for being so careless! Then I suddenly had the brilliant silly idea of driving to the end of the train line to see if I could search the train once it was stationary. I drove sped to the last station of the line and miraculously made it. I searched my seat, but someone had taken it. It was inevitable that someone would take it, but it’s been three days since I’ve lost it and as no-one has handed it in, I’ve had to get everything replaced. Although it has been a hassle to cancel my credit cards, yes I have more than one, and replace the others, it could have been worse. I could have lost my phone, my iPod or my SLR camera (eeek!!) so I’m not too upset. It was my own fault anyway :(

It’s quite odd really, I have an excellent and somewhat freaky memory and I’m very good with quoting facts, lines from movies/television and I always remember people’s names and faces, but I tend to forget the simple everyday things. Other stupid things I have done:

• As a teen, I would often leave the keys to the house still in the lock in the mornings and as I returned from school, they would still be hanging there. I’m surprised no-one has ever found them and stolen everything in my house.
• Twice after cooking, I have forgotten to turn the oven off and it would be on for hours after I had cleaned up and finished. I would only realise it was still turned on when I was back in the kitchen and it would feel strangely warm. The first time I left it on, I actually left the house for a while. I’m simply amazed I didn’t burn the house down.
• I have an old car and it doesn’t have automatic central locking, so I have to manually lock it with my keys or hold the door handle in as I close the door. I’ve locked my keys in the car many times, sometimes with the with the keys still in the ignition (but the car turned off). I’ve called my parents and boyfriend many times to bring a spare set of keys to where ever I am. Let’s just say they get rather annoyed!

See how stupid I can be? Luckily for me, nothing went wrong with the batch of biscuits I made this afternoon. And yes, don’t worry, the oven is switched off! :D

Ginger Biscuits with Lemon Icing

This recipe is a simple one and makes wonderfully spiced biscuits. They aren’t overly sweet and the crystallised ginger provides a really nice subtle peppery aftertaste. The touch of lemon icing provides a hint of sweetness and tang and were absolutely magnificent with a glass of milk.

Adapted from a recipe by Bill Granger in ‘Holiday’.

175g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

100g (¾ cup) icing sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

250g (2 cups) plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

100g crystallised ginger, very finely chopped

Lemon Icing

60g ( ½ cup) icing sugar

a tablespoon of lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for a minute until very smooth. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and ground spices over the butter mixture. Add the crystallised ginger. Gently combine until the flour disappears.
4. Roll tablespoons of the dough into balls and set out onto the baking trays. Lightly squish the balls with the palm of your hand.
5. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Allow to cool on a baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. For the icing, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Ice the biscuits however you like and allow to set.

I love stashing things in my freezer, but I’d hate to clean it out because I don’t really know what’s hiding in there half the time. I know there is a huge bag of blackened over-ripe bananas I keep on hand for cakes and muffins (20 in total, eek!), odds and ends of pastry, around five half-empty bags of berries and a roll or two of cookie dough ready to be sliced up and baked. I also have little plastic bags of egg whites hidden in every corner, because when I make ice-cream, custard or anything that uses a heap of egg yolks, I always save the egg whites and stash them in the freezer for another time. I seem to accumulate the egg whites at a much faster rate than I can use!

To use them up, I usually make simple white or brown sugar meringues and fill them with fresh fruit and softly whipped cream, but today I felt like something different, so a batch of mocha meringues was whipped up. The little meringue puffs are flavoured with coffee and cocoa, then sandwiched together with a smear of melted dark chocolate. Yum!

Mocha Meringues

(adapted from a recipe in delicious. magazine, February 2008)

3 large egg whites

180g caster sugar

1 teaspoon cornflour

½ teaspoon white vinegar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 teaspoons ground coffee

80g dark chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 130°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. While continuously whisking, add the sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff and satiny shiny. Whisk in the vanilla, cornflour, white vinegar, cocoa powder and two teaspoons of the coffee until combined.
3. Using a piping bag and a 1cm plain nozzle, pipe 60 small blobs onto the prepared trays around 2.5cm in diameter and 4cm apart.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Turn the oven off and with the door slightly ajar, allow the meringues to cool completely.
5. Melt the chocolate and the remaining coffee in a bowl set over saucepan of simmering water. Allow to cool, then use to sandwich the meringue bases together.

Makes 30 and will keep for 2 days in an airtight container.

I’m so happy because this year, I have received the best Christmas ‘present’ ever! My best friend Paula has been living in Sydney for the past year to study and yesterday she returned home to Melbourne for good. Yay! :) Paula actually doesn’t remember the first time we met, but I can recall being awkwardly alone during the first Year 8 Art lesson of the year and shyly making my way over to her desk and asking if I could sit next to her. Luckily for me, she said yes and we’ve been best friends ever since.

What do I love about Paula? Without writing a thousand-word essay, she’s straightforward and confident, intelligent and composed, very sweet and sensitive, constantly puts others’ needs first and has a heart of absolute gold. Without getting too emotional, she’s always believed in me, always listened to my constant ramblings, always there if I needed a shoulder to cry on, and for that I am truly thankful to have her as my friend.

I’m glad that she has come home at this time of year because it’s the time you spend with the ones you love most. I’ve been looking forward to sharing a plate of biscuits, a few laughs and a cup of peppermint tea with my best friend for so long. Tonight I did and I couldn’t be happier.

Welcome home Paula :)

For Christmas this year, I’ve made a big batch of macadamia shortbread and (crunchy) gingerbread biscuits, wrapped them up in squares of calico and ribbon and gave them to my nearest and dearest to enjoy. To my family, friends and my 15 or so readers, haha, may you all have a wonderful and festive Christmas!

Linda xx

Macadamia Shortbread

(a classic recipe from one my all-time favourite baking books, ‘Homebaked’ by the Australian Women’s Weekly)

250g unsalted butter, softened

110g (½ cup) caster sugar

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract (or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod)

300g (2 cups) plain flour

75g (½ cup) rice flour

75g (½ cup) finely chopped macadamias

2 tablespoons caster sugar or vanilla sugar, to sprinkle

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until very light in colour and rather fluffy. Gently fold in the flours and nuts. Using your (clean) hands, press the ingredients together to form a large mass.
3. On a floured bench, gently knead the dough until smooth. This should only take a minute or two.
4. Divide the dough into three portions. Roughly roll each portion between two sheets of non-stick baking paper into a 20cm circle. Press into the shortbread rounds using an upturned loose-bottomed fluted tin, to create three rounds. Cut each round into 12 wedges. Using a spatula, carefully transfer the wedges onto your prepared baking trays (you may need to repeat this process as your trays may not have enough space). Prick each wedge with the tines of a fork and sprinkle with sugar.
5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the shortbread turns a pale straw colour. Allow the wedges to stand on the tray before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Gingerbread Biscuits

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup brown sugar

200g unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

¾ cup golden syrup

3 cups (450) plain flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoons ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoons ground cloves

pinch of pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar until very light in colour and fluffy. Add egg and golden syrup and mix until a lovely, gooey mixture forms.
3. Add flour, baking soda, salt, pepper and spices and mix until just combined. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead for a minute. Divide the mixture into four portions and place in the fridge for at least an hour (overnight is also fine).
4. Roll each portion between two sheets of baking paper and cut out shapes as desired. Place the cut-outs onto your prepared baking trays (you may need to repeat this process as your trays may not have enough space).
5. Bake for approximately 10 minutes for small biscuits and 12 minutes for larger shapes or until the biscuits turn a lovely golden brown colour. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool.

‘Dulce de leche‘, translated from Spanish, literally means ’sweet of milk’. It is rich, moreish and is literally boiled condensed milk. It can be bought ready-made, but it is ridiculously easy to make: just throw a can or two of condensed milk into a large saucepan of water, bring it to the boil and simmer for a few hours, always making sure the water is topped up and that the cans are fully immersed in water. The time you leave to simmer depends on the consistency you want really. The longer you boil it for, the more viscous it becomes. I find three hours is just about right :)

I thought about making alfajores, a Latin American specialty consisting of two crisp biscuits sandwiched together with dulce de leche, but decided against it as I was in the mood for something extra caramelly (is ‘caramelly’ even a word?!). I pretty much fiddled around for a few days and came up with a recipe using dulce de leche in the biscuit base itself. The biscuits turn out a gorgeous golden colour, crisp on the outside and rather soft in the middle, chewy almost. Sandwiched with a dollop of even more dulce de leche and you can’t get much better than that!

If making your own dulce de leche, boiling up two cans of condensed milk will produce more than you need for the recipe below (one can is not enough). Leftover caramel can be heated up with a touch of cream to create a lovely, runny sauce which is perfect poured over vanilla ice cream. But to be honest, I’m such a caramel fan, I’d happily eat it as it is with a spoon, as you would with a jar of Nutella or peanut butter :) (maybe I could use the leftover dulce de leche and try to make my own Caramello Koalas, haha!)

Double Dulce de Leche Biscuits

200g unsalted butter, softened

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup caster sugar

1.5 cups dulce de leche

2 eggs

2.5 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare a baking tray with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
2. Beat the butter, sugars and three quarters of a cup of the dulce de leche until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, ensuring they are well mixed after each addition.
4. Add the sifted flour, baking powder and salt and combine until just combined.
5. Drop a big teaspoonful of batter for each biscuit onto the prepared tray leaving 5 centimetres of space in between them. The mixture is a bit gooey and I found it easier using a piping bag.
6. Bake for approximately 8 – 10 minutes or until a deep golden brown (baking time will ultimately vary depending on the size of your biscuit). Remove from tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.
7. Once cool, spread half of the biscuits with the extra dulce de leche and partner them with a naked biscuit. That’s it! :)

P.S. This recipe makes lots!

Some bloggers are obsessed with blogging. Me? I love writing on this blog and it is still fairly new but I’m not obsessed… yet :)

Although I am not a daily blogger, I find myself developing strange blogging habits:

• When shopping (and especially at markets), I scour the tables/shelves for unusual pieces (such as bowls and plates) that would look good photographed.
• When I bake for the blog, I bake during the daytime hours only so that I can use the bright natural sunlight for better quality photos (I think a lot of bloggers/photographers do this!). If I bake in the late afternoon or night-time, I simply take shots the next day.
• I randomly purchase odd bits of paper and fabric that would make good photo backgrounds – thanks Lincraft!. I now have a box of patterned paper ready to be used during times of creativity (I have a penchant for spots and stripes if you haven’t noticed).

Odd behaviour aside, one great thing about this blog, is that it has allowed me to develop a love of photography, so now I am saving up for a digital SLR and photography lessons (I have my eye on this one and it is not cheap!). Hopefully I’ll be able to inherit my dad’s old Canon SLR (which I think I should considering he hasn’t used it in years) and get a chance to fiddle around with it. I have even attained a copy of Adobe Photoshop, but I have no idea how to use it.

This blog has inspired me greatly and has allowed me to get my creative juices flowing. It brings a smile to my face to be able to bake something yummy, write something totally random about it, style the end product and then bring it all together here on this blog.

Just for you, I will share a delicious recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Biscuits. They are crisp, yet chewy; packed with crunchy peanuts and little morsels of dark chocolate. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Biscuits

(adapted from the wonderful book ‘From My Home To Yours’ by Dorie Greenspan (one of America’s baking sweethearts))

2 ½ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Pinch of cinnamon

230g unsalted butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth – I used smooth)

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup salted peanuts, chopped (easiest way is to place in a plastic bag and bash it around with a rolling pin, Jamie Oliver style)

½ cup dark chocolate chips (I prefer to chop up a block of good chocolate instead – I used Lindt this time)

¼ cup granulated white sugar (just like the type you use in your coffee)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick paper.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter for a minute or two until it is smooth and creamy.
4. Add the peanut butter and thoroughly combine. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute between each addition (don’t forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then!).
5. Throw in the flour mix and beat until just combined. Add the chocolate and peanuts (the mixture is quite soft, so don’t be alarmed).
6. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and place them on the baking tray about 5 centimetres apart. Flatten them slightly with the tines of a fork so you get those lovely indentations.
7. Sprinkle them liberally with sugar and bake them for around 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown (the biscuits will be slightly soft). Repeat with remaining mixture. Place the biscuits on a wire rack to cool.

I’ve always wondered, is there any difference between a biscuit and a cookie?

After doing a Google search (one of the best things ever invented), it seems that there is. In America, a cookie is a small, sweet, flat baked product and a biscuit is a type of small bread that is made using either baking powder or baking soda as it’s leavening agent. Many American biscuit recipes are similar to English/Australian scones and what’s confusing is that the sweet variations of biscuits are known as scones, whereas the savoury versions are usually known as biscuits (e.g. cheese biscuits). Sweet biscuits that are served with fruit, juice and cream are known as as a shortcake, with the most common version: the strawberry shortcake.

In England, a biscuit and cookie are essentially the same, but a biscuit is usually harder, more brittle. A cookie is softer and more chewy. And a scone is, well, a scone.

We Australians like to keep things simple. A biscuit or a ‘bickie’, is the same as a cookie. It’s small, it’s sweet and it’s damn good with a ‘cuppa’! :)

Oaty Chocolate Cookies

(adapted from a recipe found in ‘Bills Food’ by Bill Granger)

150g unsalted butter, softened

230g brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

125g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

200g rolled oats

180g dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Cream the butter and brown sugar with a hand-held beater until light and fluffy (if you don’t know this by now, I love using this thing!).

3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well.

4. Fold in the flour, oats and chocolate. Roll tablespoonful sized balls and place them on your lined tray/s. Flatten them slightly with your fingers.

5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until they become pale golden brown.