Orange and Cardamom Cookies.

Okay! Who has been keeping this versatile and tasty spice from me? CARDAMOM. I can see it featuring a lot in my cooking in the future.Very easy to make, store and eat (Love 'em)

Ingredients...
250 gms Butter (softened)
100 gms Raw Castor Sugar
1 Egg Yolk. (medium sized)
A little Salt.
Zest of 1 Orange.
1 teasp. Orange extract.
1 1/2 tablesp. Cardamom (freshly ground)
250 gms Plain Flour (sifted)

Method...
Preheat oven to 180c. Line a cookie/biscuit slide or tray.
Cream together butter and sugar until pale in colour. Add the egg yolk, salt, orange extract, zest from orange and the cardamom, then mix again until well combined. Finally add the flour. This is left until last so as not to overwork the flour.
Making sure your hands are really clean, here comes the fun bit.
Make little balls of the mixture (about golf ball size) and place on prepared tray. Now just gently press down on each ball. I used a meat tenderizer so I could have a pattern. But please remember, these do spread a little, so not to close to each other.I also sprinkled a little raw sugar on the top before putting in to the oven.
Place in the oven for around 16 minutes until golden. Cool on rack and then try stopping at just eating one!

Biscotti

As some of you might know, I am a big fan of James Martin. Here is another one of his recipes from DESSERTS (a fabulous collection of recipes from SWEET BABY JAMES)
I did change a few things, as I was out of hazelnuts, almonds and dried strawberries. Used green cherries and the nuts were replaced with pistachios.

Ingredients....
250 g Plain Flour
250 g caster sugar
3 medium Free Range Eggs lightly beaten
50 g dried sweetened strawberries chopped
100 g dried Apricots chopped
50 g medjool dates stones removed, chopped
75 g Pistachios shells removed
50 g whole blanched Almonds
50 g Hazelnuts shells removed
1 Lemon zest only

Method....

For the biscotti, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add half the beaten eggs and mix well, then add half of what's left and mix again. Add the last quarter a little at a time until the dough takes shape but isn't too wet (you may not need to use all of the eggs). Add the fruit, nuts and
lemon zest and mix well.
Divide the dough into six pieces. With wet hands, roll each piece into a sausage shape about 5cm/2in wide and place well apart on the baking sheet. Lightly flatten the 'sausages' and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden-brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and harden for ten minutes.
With a serrated knife, cut the 'sausages' on an angle into 0.5cm/¼in slices and lay these on the baking sheet. Return to the oven and bake for eight minutes, then turn the slices over and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, or until they are a pale golden colour. Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks. When completely cold, the biscotti can be stored in airtight jars for a week or more.
I didn't make the Limoncello, although I certainly have enough lemons at the moment to do so. Shop bought for me, and then dunked the biscotti in to the Limoncello. DELISH.

Anzac Day 25th April.

ANZAC BISCUITS.
Traditional biscuits baked by anxious mothers and wives during World War 1, packed in food parcels and sent to the Australian soldiers in the trenches. Ingredients.

1 cup Rolled Oats.
3/4 cup Desiccated Coconut.
1 cup Plain Flour.
1 cup Sugar (I used brown)
125g Butter.
2 tablespoons Golden Syrup.
1/2 teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.
1 tablespoon Boiling Water.
1 tablespoon *Wattleseed. (I added this but you don't have to)

Method. Preheat oven to 150c and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut in one bowl together. Melt together the butter and syrup in the microwave if you wish, or as I did, in a saucepan over heat. Mix the soda with the boiling water and add to the melted butter mix. Now add the butter mix to the dry ingredients and mix together well with a wooden spoon. Place 1 tablespoon full of the biscuit mixture on to the baking tray. This should make around 35 biscuits. Flatten with a fork and do leave room for spreading. Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool on trays.

*Wattleseed is a truely delightful spice from the Australian bush. Has a flavour of rich coffee, chocolate and hazelnut. Mine was given to me by Sharon in Melbourne. Thank you. You can get it from here. www.spicebazaar.com.au

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Sweetheart Biscuits

My dearest valentine gave me a pair of pink Sapphire earrings and a pendant to match. He certainly knows how to win my heart.
The way to his heart is through his stomach. (Sorry honey) But it is true, he loves his food. So I spent a lovely couple of hours in the kitchen and came up with these.

The recipe is from http://www.taste.com.au and here it is....

Sweet Heart Jam Drops.

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
5 tablespoons raspberry jam

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease 2 baking trays. Line with baking paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk. Beat to combine. Add flour. Stir to combine.
Roll 2 tablespoons of mixture into a ball. Repeat with remaining mixture to make 10 balls. Place balls 10cm apart on trays. Using the palm of your hand, flatten each ball to form a 7cm round, shaping edges to remove any cracks.
Gently press a 5cm heart-shaped cutter into the centre of each round, being careful not to cut the whole way through. Using the tip of a small knife, scoop out the dough to make a heart shaped indentation. Gently smooth indentation. Fill each heart with 2 teaspoons jam, spreading out to edges.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden. Cool on trays. Makes 10

I doubled the recipe because I wanted to make other shapes as well without the jam.

Gingered Oat Biscuits

This is a recipe from Violet's mum, Violet being the Violet from Violet's Pantry. A members only forum to which I belong. I thought at first that I would not like these, so I decided to add ground ginger. It did add a nice warmth to the biscuit, but you could leave it out if you wish.

4 oz/100g self raising Flour.

4oz/100g porridge Oats.

½ level teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda.

4oz/100g Butter.

4oz/100g granulated sugar.

1 rounded tablespoon Golden Syrup.

1/2 tablespoon of ground Ginger.

Heat the oven to 180 c. Grease a large baking tray with butter or line it with parchment paper. Mix flour, oats, ground ginger and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl put to one side.

Put butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat on a low heat until butter and sugar are melted, stir occasionally, take off heat and stir in the oat mix, beat well with a wooden spoon. Scoop dessertspoons of mixture up and make into ball shapes and place on the prepared baking tray, when the tray is full slightly flatten the balls out with the back of the dessert spoon. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, when ready remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving onto a wire rack.

I actually doubled this recipe and had two trays of 15 biscuits each in the oven at one time.

Dark Choc Slice and White Choc Cherry slice

I actually found a variation of this on another blog. The Oh
so clever Violet from http://violets-homecooking.blogspot.com/

Vi used two sorts of chocolate in one slice. I used one chocolate for each of the two slices.
Putting smashed biscuits, sultanas and dark choc together for one, and white choc, glazed red cherries, smashed shortbread biscuits and flaked coconut for the other.


For these you will need...


1 bar dark cooking chocolate (melted)
1 pack of sweet tea biscuits (smashed up)
1 cup of sultanas.

Combine the biscuits and sultanas in a bowl, add the melted chocolate and stir well until all is covered. Place mixture into a tray and press down firmly. Put in the fridge for half an hour to set.
Then cut into slices.







For the white slices, you will need...
1 bar white cooking chocolate (melted)
1 pack glazed cherries. (roughly chopped)
1/2 cup flaked coconut (most for mixture and some for the top)
1 pack shortbread biscuits (smashed)

Same directions as before and adding the coconut to the top and squashing down a little just
before you put them in the fridge.