Jam Drop Cookies

My computer is in the computer hospital at the moment with all of my cooking photo's on it, so I'm resorting to a recipe I frequently bake, and have posted on my family blog previously. This recipe is so smooth and delicious and the family just love them. This one comes from a cook book that Donald and I got as a wedding present. It has been one of the most useful recipe books I own. Thanks to Kim, Donald's cousin we are the proud owners of one "Mrs Fields Cookie Book" and we just loooove it.

So the recipe I'm going to share today is based on Mrs Fields Suprise-Filled Cookies, but I've added a little custard powder to make them taste smoother. Bascially they're jam drop cookies.

Jam Drop Cookies

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 cup custard powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

your favourite jam for the filling

Preheat oven to 150° C/300° F

In a medium bowl combine flour, custard powder and baking powder. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside. In a medium bowl cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed until combined. The dough will be firm.

Scoop teaspoonfuls of dough, roll into balls about 2 cm diameter and place on ungreased baking sheets or baking paper about 2 1/2 cm's apart, they will spread as they cook. Use your thumb to depress the middle of the cookie ball and make a little well, but not too hard that you make a hole in the bottom. Using a teaspoon drop a little of your jam to fill the well, not too much as it will spill over while it cooks.

Bake for 22-24 minutes until very lightly golden yellow. Remember the jam will be stinking hot when they come out so wait till they cool a little before munching into them.

Black Forest Gateau

Alright, if you're prepared for deliciousness, richness, chocolatey, moist and creamy and did I mention rich, then this is the cake for you.  It was perfect, just how I wanted it to be.  This was my husbands birthday cake, I don't think he was prepared for how rich and chocolatey his birthday cake was to be...I was!  I've made basic black forest cakes before with just an ordinary chocolate cake base, but this time I followed the books recipe, except for the kirsch liquor, which we don't use and didn't need.  The recipe comes from my Chocolate Dreams recipe book by Christine France, I inherited it from my sister.... thank you Gabby.  

Black Forest Gateau

6 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

60ml Kirsch (optional I didn't use it)

600ml/2 1/2 cups double cream or thickened cream

2 tblspn icing sugar

1/2 teasp vanilla essence

675g jar/can pitted black cherries well drained

Juice from the jar of cherries.

To Decorate

2 Cadbury Flake bars crumbled or grated chocolate

Fresh or drained cherries

Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.  Grease three 19cm round cake tins.  

**I used two 21cm round tins and made double the mixture to bake 4 cakes.  It depends on the size of your pans and how big you want your cake.  I'm making a 3 layer cake and I have frozen the 4th cake.**  

Line the bottom and sides of each tin with non-stick baking paper.  Combine the eggs with the sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl and beat with a hand-held electric mixer until pale and very thick.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder over the mixture and fold in lightly and evenly with a metal spoon.  Gently stir in the melted butter.

Divide the mixture among the prepared tins, smoothing them level.  I only cooked two at a time.

  

Bake for 15-18 mins, until the cakes have risen and are springy to the touch  leave them to cool in the tins for about 5 mins, then turn out on to wire racks and leave to cool completely.  Remove the lining from each cake.

Prick each layer of cake all over with a skewer then sprinkle with a couple of table spoons of cherry juice (or the Kirsch).

Using a hand held electric mixer, whip the cream in a bowl until it starts to thicken, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and vanilla essence until the mixture begins to hold its shape.

To assemble, spread one cake layer with a thick layer of cream and top with about half of the cherries.

Put second cake layer over the top of the first, spread with cream, top with cherries.  You could leave the cake like this and it would still be wonderful.  But I'm going for 3 layers of decadence.

  

Top with the final cake layer.

Spread the remaining cream all over the cake top and sides.

  

Sprinkle with chocolate and decorate with cherries. I used a piping bag for the cream blobs that the cherries sit on.

 

 

Cherries with stalks or without? 

 I think I prefer the stalks left on they look like little birthday candles.

Homemade Sausage rolls

I have been making these sausage rolls for birthday parties over the past few years. I am tired of greasy sausage rolls from the frozen food section and wanted to make a healthier, tastier version for the kids (and adults). It is easy and you get to choose the type of filling for your sausage rolls.  So go get yourself some lovely gourmet sausages the flavour of your choice.  I chose lamb, rosemary, mint and garlic for these ones.

Sausage Rolls

6 gourmet sausages, your choice of flavour

2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry

1 egg beaten

1 table spoon sesame seeds

Turn on your oven to 200°C/400°F. Line baking trays with baking paper. Defrost 2 sheets of puff pastry about an hour before you start cooking. It will give the pastry time to thaw so it's easy to work it.

You need about 3 gourmet sausages per square sheet of puff pastry.  Peel the skin off your sausages just like for the spaghetti and meatballs.  Cut the pastry in half.  Lay the sausage down the long edge of the puff pastry and add another 1/2 sausage until the lenth of the pastry is covered and comes to the end of the pastry.  You can always stretch the sausage to fit.  Brush beaten egg on the opposite edge of the pastry to the sausage.  Now roll the pastry until the sausage is covered.  The egg will seal the pastry and sausage roll together.

Cut the large roll into whatever sized sausage rolls you like, I like bite size, and place them onto a lined baking tray.  Repeat with the rest of the pastry and sausages. 

 

Brush beaten egg on top of sausage rolls and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Place in a hot oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown and sausage is cooked.

Serve with tomato sauce (compulsory).

Chocolate Marshmallow Cloud Cookies

It's school holidays and with the boys home from school I have lots more time for cooking. It's just a matter of deciding what treat to cook. Today we baked chocolate marshmallow cloud cookies, which comes from my Mrs Fields cookie book. With my little marshmallow goblin helpers (goblin cause that's what they do when they help, gobble, gobble, gobble) we sifted flour and cocoa and added the marshmallows to the mix.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cloud Cookies

3 cups plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup salted butter softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups dark choc bits
1 100g bag mini marshmallows, frozen

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F. Put the marshmallows in the freezer prior to baking and keep them there, they need to be kept cold before they go into the cookies.

In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa and baking powder. Set aside.

Combine sugars in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend in butter, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat at medium speeed until lght and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed until combined. Batter will be very stiff.

Gather a ball of mixture in the palm of your hand, make a well in the middle and fill with 4-5 frozen marshmallows, cover over completely encasing them and forming a 2-inch-diameter dough ball. Make sure the marshmallows are covered otherwise they will spill out while cooking and become too chewy rather than soft and marshmallowy.  I have tried making smaller cookies with less marshmallows and have tried making them bigger, it just depends if you can handle the sweetness, they are very rich.  I prefer the smaller cookies.

Place balls on lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on pan 2 minutes then transfer to a cool flat surface or pop into your mouth.

Mini Quiches

These little quiches are lovely for brunch or lunch and can even go in the kids lunch boxes the next day. I just used my normal quiche recipe that I use for larger quiches. The egg mix is always changing when ever I make a quiche. You can add whatever bits and pieces to flavour your quiche, cherry tomato on the top, chopped asparagus or mix up a bit of chopped spinach, what ever you have in your fridge.

Mini quiches

6 Eggs whisked
3 slices Bacon chopped, fat removed
2 shallots chopped
125 grams grated colby cheese
125 ml Cream or sour cream
125 ml Milk

2 tablespoons cottage cheese
3 sheets Frozen puff pastry thawed

Extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F. Thaw the puff pastry separately on the bench on it's plastic. Grease a 12 muffin tray pan with oil, I used olive oil. Cut out circles in the pastry the size of a ramekin. You want them big enough to fit your muffin tray sections with the edges a little higher than the muffin cups so it's easier to get them out when they're cooked. Cut a little triangle out of the circle to make it easier to fit into the muffin tin. Any left over pastry can be added together, kneaded and rolled out to make more quiches.

Shape the pastry into the muffin tins and press down to seal the cut pastry.

Cook up the finely chopped bacon and then add the chopped shallots. Put them aside. Combine beaten eggs, milk, cream or sour cream, cottage cheese and season with salt. Add half of the bacon and shallots (save some to sprinkle on top of quiches) and all the grated cheese. Spoon evenly into the pastry and sprinkle with remaining bacon and shallots.

Cook in the oven until the eggs are set and pastry is cooked and puffed. Approximately 10 to 15 minutes. The eggs will rise while they cook and then settle down when out of the oven. Don't they look scrumptious all puffy and golden!

Raspberry and White chocolate muffins

I've never made these muffins before and have dreamed of them for years since I first saw Ainsley Harriott on tv making extra tall ones wrapped in baking paper.  I can't quite remember how he did it but these simple ones are pretty scrumptious.  I just love how the mixture goes a lovely shade of pink.  I found this recipe here.  Next time I'll attempt the more decadent tall ones.

Raspberry and white chocolate muffins

  2 cups plain flour
 2 teaspoons baking powder
  1 cup caster sugar
  1 egg
  1 cup milk
  50g butter, melted
  1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
  180g good white chocolate, roughly chopped or white choc buds

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F. Place 12 large patty cases into a muffin pan. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and mix in the sugar.

In a small bowl, whisk together egg, milk and butter. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. Using a large spoon, gently fold the raspberries and chocolate into the mixture until just combined, you don't want to over stir it or the raspberries squish up.

Distribute the batter between patty cases.

 Bake for 20-25 min, or until a skewer comes out clean and muffins are golden.

Chicken Pie

This pie is oh so delicious and looks rather tempting.  The pastry mix is one I use for making apple pie only I omitted the sugar and still kept in the custard powder, it comes from my "Best recipes from the Weekly". I think the custard powder helps to give it that rich golden colour and a nice smooth crust to taste.  The chicken pie filling is one that I have made up from a combination of recipes off the internet and have ironed out the wrinkles to make it a perfect pie.  I had lots of chicken so I decided to make two pies.  One I cooked and the other I prepared but didn't cook, so it went straight into the freezer for another day.  The ingredients below are for one pie, just double it for two, although I must say I did only use half of a large chicken, it was a very big chicken.  Just give yourself plenty of time for this pie, pastry could be made in the morning or the day before so you just have to roll it out and add the filling. 

Chicken Pie

Pastry

1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cornflour

1/3 cup custard powder

185g butter

1/3 cup water approx

1 egg white

sesame seeds

Filling
2 potatoes diced and pre boiled
1/2 sweet potato diced and pre boiled
1 carrot diced
1 onion chopped chunkily

2 sticks of celery chopped finely
30g butter
extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots
thyme
rosemary
3/4 cup corn kernals
1/2 large BBQ chicken chopped (free range if possible)
1 tablespn corn flour
1 teaspoon chicken stock
300ml water

salt & pepper to season

To make the pastry, sift flour, cornflour and custard powder together with the baking powder, rub in softened butter.  Make a well in the centre, add egg yolk and enough water to mix to a firm dough, knead lightly.  Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the pie filling.

Turn oven on to 190° C/375° F.  Boil potatoes until just ready, you don't want them too soft.  Oil large pan with extra virgin olive oil and a dob of butter, gently cook up the onion, carrot and celery until softened.  Add chopped chicken and herbs then the cooked potatoes, corn, shallots and seasoning. Gently mix together.  Add water to the stock and cornflour, mix together then stir into the pie filling, let thicken.  Turn off the heat.  You also don't want the pie too soggy, the liquid just binds the ingredients together.

Retrieve pastry from the fridge and cut into two halves.  Roll out the first half of pastry onto floured surface.  Roll it large enough to cover the greased pie plate with a little over hang around the edge.  

Fill the pie with the cooked filling. Brush egg white around the rim of the pastry.  Roll out second half of pastry and cover over the pie, press edges together firmly and trim.

  

Any spare bits of pastry can be rolled out and shaped to decorate your pie.  Brush top of pie with egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Cut an X in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape while cooking.

Bake in moderately hot oven 25-35 mins until golden brown, serve immediately.  Any leftovers are great for a warm lunch the next day.

School lunches

Back in my day lunch times at school were called little lunch and big lunch and we had a tuckshop at the school where you could get a lunch order or just buy a snack over the counter.  I remember in grade one, the tuckshop was about 15 meters away from our class room and the smell of pies and sausage rolls heating up through the morning used to make me so hungry.  On a hot summer's day in Queensland you could buy a sunny boy triangular pyramid shaped ice block that would last all the lunch hour because it was frozen solid.  Usually at the end of the lunch hour you'd be left with a tasteless blob of ice as you sucked the juice out of it.   

Today my boys call their little lunch recess and big lunch is just lunch time, tuckshop is now canteen.  At my boys school there is only one day in the week that the canteen is open all day and on Fridays it's open for recess only.  During the early years of my first son's schooling we never really did lunch orders, but since my second son started school it's been a habit in the last year or so every Tuesday to have a lunch order.  I look forward to Tuesdays, not only does it give me a break on Tuesday mornings from making lunches, but if the cupboard is bare I don't have to worry, unless of  course we have run out of small change...then we have to raid the money boxes.

The lunches I make for my boys every day is fairly simple.  The only pre-packed thing I sometimes use is a little pyramid of laughing cow cheese to pop into their recess.  For their recess, I cut up a piece of fruit and have crackers and cheese or a little container that I put some dip into.  This recess had some carrot sticks for dipping, a few water crackers, grapes and spinach and pine nut dip in a tiny sealed container.  Sometimes it's just cookies or muffins that I have made, but there's always a piece of fruit.

For lunch it's always a sandwich.  Ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce and a little mayo on whole grain bread.  It varies sometimes, ham, cheese and avocado, chicken, tomato and avocado etc depending on what I have in the fridge.  We don't do peanut butter at school because of children with allergies, so we save peanut butter sandwiches for the weekend.  My boys like the same things for lunches pretty much every day.  I just vary the fruit and the sandwich fillers.  I love this time of year, the fruit, especially mandarines are fantastic for putting in lunch boxes whole, if it's an apple I usually quarter it and cut out the middle seed section and give half to each child and throw in a few grapes or half of a banana. 

My theory about school lunches is if you make it bite size they can pop it into their mouths easily and have enough time for play.  If they eat their lunches, which they do, then I know they are pretty much getting a balance of all the right food groups and we can have something yummy for afternoon tea.