HOT CROSS COOKIES - An Easter Treat!

I know this recipe is a little late in the scheme of things, but what can I say lol.  It was a brand new recipe to me right before Easter and I made them on the Easter weekend.  Naturally it has been school holidays since then and I am a little behind in my blogging.

This recipe is really quite yummy and was pretty simple to prepare as well.  I liked how there was nothing fancy in them.....perfect for those long weekend cooking sessions when the shops aren't open!

I have quite a few kids that don't like sultanas so these weren't an all round hit in my house but for those of us that do like sultanas,,,they were delicious.

HOT CROSS COOKIES 

(Recipe borrowed from the Sunday Mail Newspaper in Adelaide - Food with Donna Hay section)

125 grams butter, softened

1 cup (175 grams) brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

2 1/2 cups (375 grams) self raising flour, sifted

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/3 cup (80ml) milk

1/2 cup (80 grams) sultanas

Icing

1 cup (160 grams) icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon boiling water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Place the butter and sugar in an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until pale and creamy.

Gradually add the eggs and vanilla, beating well after each addition.

Add lemon rind, flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, milk and sultanas, and beat until a smooth dough forms.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on lightly greased baking tays lined with non stick baking paper.  

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Allow to cool on trays.

To make the icing:

Place the icing sugar and water in a bowl and mix until a paste forms.

Place the mixture in a piping bag (I used a snap lock bag with the corner snipped off) fitted with a 3mm nozzle and draw a cross on each cookie.

Allow to dry on wire rack.

Enjoy at any time of the year!!!!

Custard Cherry Cookies

Wow, it has been so long since I have had a chance to share any recipes, I just can' believe how fast this year is going.  I must admit I have been sticking to my failsafe recipes lately and forgetting to photograph the dishes lol,,,,,not something I should forget to do considering the main aim of this blog is to create a recipe file of the kid's favourite recipes right???  Right!

But life is life and it moves so fast that I tend to cook, the kid's make the said dishes disappear at the speed of light and then I think "Darn I really should have grabbed a photo of that".  Aaah well such is life.  I will try to keep a camera at the ready more often,,,,,notice I said "try"!!!

Sweet dishes are something that I usually do get the chance to take photos of and I love to try out new sweet things.  Sweets are one thing that I usually find at least a couple of the kids will like regardless of what I make. I like making cakes and biscuits due to the simple fact that they at least last a couple of days at least.

This is a recipe I found a few years ago in a magazine (don't ask me which one, I have no idea lol).  Straight away I was reminded of my Mum making these when I was a kid.  I loved them back then and my kids loved them too.  I found them a little too "dry" for my taste now, but one mouthful was all it took to take me back to munching on these out on the big back verandah when I was about 8 or 9 years old.   I remember I used to eat the biscuit all the way around and save the bit with the cherry for the last bite!

My kids gave these the thumbs up, with most of them even eating the cherry which surprised me considering they all generally screw their noses up at glace cherries!

CUSTARD CHERRY BISCUITS

250 grams unsalted butter, chopped, at room temperature

1/2 Cup icing sugar, sifted

2 Cups plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup custard powder, sifted

Glace cherries, halved - 1/2 a cherry per biscuit

Preheat oven to a moderate 180 degrees (I used 160 degrees in my fan forced oven)

Lightly grease and line 2 baking trays

In a large bowl, using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.

Gradually fold in the flour and custard powder combined.

Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls.

Arrange on prepared trays, leaving space between each biscuit to allow for spreading.

Flatten lightly with a fork.

Press cherry halves, cut side down onto each biscuit.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.

Cool on trays.

*  These biscuits will be soft when removed from oven but will harden on cooling  *

ANZAC BISCUITS

It has been so long since I last posted a recipe, I just don't know where the year is going!!!  I have a little catching up to do.  I haven't been doing a lot of cooking, well cooking yes, but trying out new recipes or making cooking anything really inspiring or noteworthy, no.  I have decided to go away from the "step by step" photography for my blog.  I will on occasion do it, but generally this will just be the photos of the end result and the recipe, along with a little of my rambling on of course lol.  I made this decision primarily because I am just too lazy and also because my camera isn't that great and I found myself taking ages to get a decent photo, particularly when trying to photograph flour/sugar, batters etc, so it has been put in the too hard basket and I will leave that for the professional bloggers/photographers of this world lol.

Anyway, back to my Anzac Biscuits.  Anything Anzac is Buddha's favourite sweet treat.  He loves Anzac biscuits, slices and cakes.  Usually I whip up a batch of Anzac Slice because it is so quick and easy.  I don't make biscuits that often because they take so much more time, especially in my oven where I can only really use one shelf for baking as the lower shelves will result in burnt offerings!

But this time I had a "new to me" recipe for these biscuits and, well a new recipe just has to be tried out using the recipe for the purpose it was designed for I think.  I couldn't make this into a slice, it had to start out as biscuits!

They were yummy too.  This batch didn't last long in my house,,,,,even the batch that were a little over cooked got eaten, that always means they must have been good!!

ANZAC BISCUITS

2 cups Plain Flour

1 cup Sugar

2 cups Rolled Oats

1 1/2 cups Coconut

3 tablespoons Golden Syrup

250 grams Butter

3 teaspoons Bicarb Soda

4 tablespoons boiling water

Preheat oven to 160 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, oats and coconut together in a large bowl.

Melt the butter with the golden syrup - you can use a microwave or stove.

Heat until the butter is melted and the mixture bubbles.

Dissolve the bicarb soda in boiling water.

Add to the butter mixture.

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients.

Mix and roll into small balls.

Place on greased trays, allowing room to spread.

Bake for approx 20 minutes or until golden brown.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

You can tell it's school holidays when the sweet recipes outweigh the savoury type lol.  Keeping little bellies satisfied can be hard work.  The fruit bowl though, thankfully is getting utilised to balance it all out so I can't complain too much.

This recipe is quick to mix up and gives a decent amount of cookies for your efforts.  I made up 48 cookies out of one batch of mixture.

CHOCLATE CHIP COOKIES

250 grams Butter

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

3 3/4 cups Self Raising Flour

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Melt the butter in a large saucepan (I use a large saucepan as I then just use it to make the rest of the mix in saving dishes lol)

Add the brown sugar and mix in well (sorry the pic wouldn't turn)

Add eggs one at a time beating well.

Add in the flour and mix in well

The mixture should be nice and thick but smooth

Add in the chocolate chips and stir through evenly

Drop teaspoonfuls onto greased baking trays

Bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes