I have come into possession of two fruity items this week – a lovely big batch of stewed apples courtesy of my sister, and a tin of strawberries. Yes, tinned strawberries, what a strange thing indeed. I found them in the supermarket on special for …
I promised you that there would be more almonds to follow as part of my Edmonds Cookbook challenge, and I did not lie. We now find ourselves at devilled almonds. When you put your mind to it, there is a considerable number of food items …
Who doesn’t love a bit of maple syrup? The indigenous people of the Americas were the first to harvest maple sap. One legend credits the humble squirrel with its discovery, telling of a young boy who watched a red squirrel nip at the bark of a maple tree and lap up the sap. How cute is that?! I love squirrels and I’m well willing to believe it.
My husband came home from work recently, deeply enamoured of some maple syrup cookies, an office treat from a workmate’s holiday in Canada. Not one to be outdone by holiday biscuits, I decided to rise to the challenge of making some maple cookies of my own.
I based my biscuits on this lovely recipe, with the addition of some spices as I fancied a little kick.
To make these spiced maple biscuits, you will need:
Begin by melting the butter and once melted, mix in the sugar and leave it to cool. Melt the butter in a reasonably-sized pot, as the beauty of this recipe is you can make the whole lot in this one pot. And what’s not to love about less washing-up?
Once the butter and sugar are cool, add the egg and mix in. Follow with the maple syrup and the vanilla.
Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder and spices and mix to combine.
This will leave you with quite a gloopy mixture (as demonstrated below). Do not panic! It now goes into your fridge for at least an hour to chill.
Set your oven to 180 degrees during this time.
Once chilled, scoop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray. The mixture is quite pliable and you can easily shape the biscuits with your fingers. Sprinkle with some caster sugar and a little cinnamon if you fancy.
Bake them until golden, about 10-12 minutes in my oven, and transfer to a rack to cool. The mixture makes about 36, if you use teaspoon-sized dollops of the raw dough.
Because I was feeling creative, I topped mine with a little heart-shaped dusting of icing sugar….pretty easy to do, although I warn you, the icing sugar gets everywhere. If you wish to try this at home (although I understand if you cannot be bothered), I simply cut the shape out of a piece of stiff cardboard slightly larger than biscuit size, placed the cardboard over the biscuit, and sifted on the icing sugar. Remove the cardboard and there you have it, a cute little heart plonked on your biscuit.
These go down nicely with a cup of tea!
Forgive me readers, but I’m going to take a small detour through the Edmonds Cookbook index. Hot on the heels of Almond Biscuits is Almond Icing (yes, there are indeed a lot of almond-based recipes in the Edmonds Cookbook, and they’re not going away any …
The little rosette in the middle of my bok choy, depicted above, is not something you’d see in an exhibition-standard specimen. It indicates the plant in question has gone to seed. Far from being ashamed, I am absolutely delighted I kept something alive long enough …
Who knew that the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia was a hot bed of macadamia nut growing? I for one did not, and yet, I find myself in possession of a packet of macadamia nuts from Nutworks, thanks to my parentals and their recent visit to this part of the world.
I just love macadamia nuts. They are so rich and meaty and make such good friends with chocolate. They seem to be one of the fattiest nuts available, and this is pretty much in line with the rest of my tastes. I always like the foodstuff that’s supposedly the worst for you. Well, life just wouldn’t be any fun otherwise, would it.
Having attacked this packet of nuts over the past week or so and marauded it for idle snacking purposes only, I decided I really owed it to these fine little nuts to do something substantial with them. The idea of a chewy biscuit and some good chocolate appealed. Macadamia and chocolate chunk cookies it was.
I adapted this recipe from my go-to chocolate chip biscuit recipe, Cadbury’s own. I rather proud of myself because, as discussed in earlier posts, my biscuit-making can be a little hit and miss, but these were quite pleasant; sweet and chewy.
To make these, you will need:
Makes: 15
Set your oven to 160 degrees celsius.
Start by creaming the butter and sugars together until they are light and fluffy.
Whisk in the egg. Add the vanilla paste or essence and mix this in too.
I include reference here to vanilla paste, as recently I decided to splash out and buy some of this stuff. And it’s lovely! It looks a little gloopy, but it adds a lovely flavour to one’s baking, and has those delightful little flecks of vanilla seed that make any dessert seem a little bit posher and gourmet.
Stir in the flour.
Chop up your dark chocolate – I used Whittaker’s 50% dark chocolate because I love it so. I think you could go for even darker chocolate and it would still be lovely in these cookies.
Chop up the macadamia nuts too (which is a bit challenging because the little blighters roll away…watch your fingers!).
Add the nuts and chocolate to the mix and fold through.
Put teaspoonfuls on a greased tray and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown. I would urge you not to make them bigger than this – I got greedy with a couple, and they when they spread out they were a little unweildy.
Cool on a plate or rack and enjoy!
We now found ourselves at Almond Biscuits in the Edmonds Cookbook index. Almond Biscuits, as a category of baked good, enjoy a little more history and reputation than I had suspected. The internet informs me that these popular biscuits are “prepared in different ways across various …
On a recent trip to the supermarket, ample signage informed me that Sunday 4th August was National Roast Day. Although no doubt a ploy to sell more products, it’s been a while since my tiny kitchen knew the joys of a hearty roast, so …
Albert Squares are the next instalment in my Edmonds challenge series, following Afghan Biscuits in the index section of the Edmonds Cookbook. Although not strictly – there is an entry for Afghan Slice hot on the heels of Afghan Biscuits. However, the recipe for Afghan Slice involves making the exact same recipe as the Afghan Biscuits, only stuffing it into a tin at the final stage rather than making biscuits, and I decided this would be a bit like cheating on my part, and possibly a little boring for you dear readers out there. Afghan Slice does of course sound delicious.
So, the mighty Albert Square it is. I have to say I had never heard of this particular treat. The only Albert Square I was familiar with was a fictional one – that of the somewhat harrowing british soap EastEnders.
A quick flick of the ingredients, however, and it rung a dim bell in my memory, stored somewhere with the memories of Sunday School afternoon teas and bake fairs. I think it’s the combination of currants and coconut that make it familiar to me; it seems that a dusting of coconut and dried fruit are integral parts of many New Zealand baking treats .
I’m not sure of the history of the Albert Square, although I suspect it may a Victorian-era delicacy, with the name Albert and all (hot tip – take caution when googling ‘Prince Albert’ in pursuit of innocent baking facts).
To make your very own Albert Squares, Edmonds requires you to have:
You begin by creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. No further comment on creamed butter and sugar is needed from me since the Afghan Biscuits except to say I still think this stuff is delicious. Then the eggs are added, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Beat in the syrup and vanilla. Here’s a handy tip which I like to think is my own invention, but I bet heaps of you know this one already: when dealing with sticky substances such as syrup or honey, it helps a great deal to heat the measuring apparatus before use, which I usually do by immersing in a cup of hot water. That way, the syrup slips off very easily, and you are not forced to spend extra time coaxing it off with your fingers and making a mess.
Next come the currants, which are folded in. Is it just me or is it only possible to buy currants in very large quantities? I seem to have heaps of them and I only ever require small amounts perhaps twice a year. Hence I was pleased to see a cup of these little buggers are needed for Albert Squares.
The flour, baking powder and salt are sifted together and folded into the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. I found it made quite a stiff mixture, almost like a dough.
At this point, you spread the mixture into a greased 20 x 30cm sponge roll tin and bake it at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes, or until the centre springs back when touched.
When cold, ice it with icing made by combining 1 & 1/2 cups icing sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence and ‘sufficient water to make a spreading consistency.’ Here’s a gratuitous icing shot, because I really love icing.
Complete the look by sprinkling with 3 tablespoons of coconut and finely grated lemon rind.
And there you have it. I can certainly imagine Victorian ladies enjoying this little square with a cup of tea. For myself, I must say that although it was pleasant, I probably will not experience a craving to make it again any time soon. But for those who like a more solid, cakey slice with a touch of dried fruit, this would fit the bill.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good sandwich. Although bread has been having a hard time of late, what with low-carb fashions and suspicions about gluten, I do not let these things hold me back. Nonetheless, we all have times when we crave a …