Biscuits
Cheesey Bikkies
125 gm butter
1 cup plain flour
2 tbp SR flour
125 gm grated cheddar or other firm yellow cheese
1 tbsp red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
Place all ingredients in a bowl and rub with clean fingers till mixed. Firm into small balls, place on a tray lined with baking paper, press each biscuit with a fork to flatten it. They need to be as thin as possible. Bake at 150 ºC for about 25 minutes or till light brown at the edges. Cool on trays then keep in a sealed container.
Bryan's biscuits
150 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
one and a half cups plain flour
1 cup dark choc chips- good ones
½ cup white chocolate chips
2 tsp vanilla paste
Cream butter, vanilla and sugar; mix in the egg till you can no longer see any bits of it ie very well, then mix in the flour and chocolate. Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into a ball with your fingers, then place each e on a greased tray, press them slightly flat with a fork, and bake at 200C for about ten minutes, or until just turning golden at the edges. Take from the oven and remove carefully- they'll still be soft but will turn crisp as they cool. Keep in a sealed container for up to three weeks.
THE Ultimate Choc-chip Biscuits
You'll need:
125 gm butter
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
1 tb vanilla paste
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup SR flour
1 cup small good quality dark choc
chips (You cannot have good biscuits with poor quality chocolate. If necessary, chop up a block of good dark chocolate)
3 tbsp grated dark chocolate
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C
Line a tray with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar well, then add egg till well blended.
Gently fold in vanilla, flours and grated chocolate, then the chips.
Roll mixture into small balls.
Flatten and place on the tray. (Make sure the edges aren't till thin or they will blacken before the middle is done.)
Also ensure that the tray will be in the middle of the oven or the tops or bottoms of the biscuits may brown before the other end is ready.
Bake about 10 minutes, till golden brown, NOT darker brown.
Remove tray from oven. Pull off the paper quickly so the still soft biscuits don't cook any more.
Cool till crisp then store in a sealed container.
They last for about three weeks, but are best eaten within week.
Hairy Nosed Biscuits (Chocolate)
You'll need:
125 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate, grated
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup SR flour.
1 tb vanilla paste
Coconut to garnish
Method:
Preheat oven to 200C
Cream butter sugar vanilla and grated chocolate. Beat in egg then flours.
Place blobs on a baking tray.
Shape into a vague rectangular/oval nose shape if you have the skill. Scatter on coconut.
Bake till pale brown.
Remove.
Stick in three toothpicks on either side while still hot for the whiskers. Leave to cool on the tray.
Keep in a sealed container for up to a week.
Bitter Almond Shortbread
You'll need:
250g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup icing sugar (pure icing sugar, not icing mix)
1/3 cup cornflour
2 1/3 cups plain flour
1 heaped bitter almond paste (or ½ tsp almond essence if you can’t find bitter almond paste but the former makes a stunning biscuit)
Couverture dark chocolate
Method:
Melt butter on low heat. Take off heat and mix in sugars till dissolved. Add paste or essence then flours. Mix well.
Spread mix thinly with your fingers on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake at 200 ºC for 10-20 minutes till just browning at the edges. Do not overcook.
Remove from the oven with oven gloves or tea towel to protect hands. Mark into squares or diamonds or long triangles etc while still hot and soft. They will firm up as they cool and become very crisp.
Icing:
Melt chocolate in the microwave. Do not over heat as it will still have its shape when melted. Over-heated chocolate turns grainy and horrible.
Smear thickly on melted biscuits. Top with an almond or not.
soft and fudgy oat cookies
You'll need:
500g butter, softened
450g brown sugar
395g tin condensed milk
400g oats
300g self-raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sultanas
Method:
Mix all gently.
Place small rolls on baking paper on a baking tray.
Bake for twelve minutes at 200°C or till pale brown.
Cool on tray and keep in a sealed container.
Crunchy Curry Cheese Biscuits
Very 1960s (uses curry powder which has always seemed a Dodo Macintosh type ingredient, and the Corn Flakes make it even more so.) Note: these bikkies are soft, not crisp, but with crunchy bits.
125 gm butter
1 egg
1 cup SR flour
1 cup Corn Flakes
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 level tbsp curry powder
Beat egg and butter, rub in the flour with your fingers, then add other ingredients. Firm into small balls, place on a tray lined with baking paper, press each biscuit with a fork to flatten it. They need to be as thin as possible or they will be soft. Bake at 150 ºC for about 25 minutes or till light brown at the edges. Cool on trays then keep in a sealed container.
The builder's Biscuit
(A stunning biscuit; very crisp, extremely more-ish, also energy giving and lures builders to come and finish your extensions)
125 gms butter or margerine
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsps REAL vanilla
1 egg
a bit less than 1 and a half cups self raising flour
1 and a half cups dark chocolate pieces
1 and a half cups roasted peanuts, with salt (ie don't buy unsalted or raw ones)
Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg and fold in other ingredients. Place small spoonfuls on a greased tray and bake at 225C for10 -12 minutes until JUST starting to turn golden. let cool on the tray for 3 minutes before removing. Don't worry- they'll get crisp as they cool
Yield: about 25 biscuits and hopefully a new bedroom
ps I always make double this amount, as the biscuits keep for a month or more in a sealed container.. If you do this put them in several small containers if you can, so they are opened as little as possible for best keeping.
pps don't feed this to wombats, even if they are helping the builders. Give them a carrot instead.
Teacher-Librarian Biscuits
You'll need:
250 gm butter
6 tbsp golden syrup
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats
1 ½ cups plain flour
½ cup SR flour
1 ½ cups white chocolate pieces
Method:
Preheat oven to 150C
Melt the butter and syrup. Add the rest except the chocolate. Stir well, then leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Add the chocolate By now it will melt into swirls so handle gently- you don’t want it to amalgamate but stay swirly and slightly lumpy.
Place small balls on a tray lined with baking paper. Press flat with a fork. Bake at till pale brown - not too dark. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.
The kitchen will smell incredible.
Eat with your favourite book. Just like teacher librarians, you only need one to make life good.
Olive oil and lemon nut biscuits
Note: No eggs or animal fats; high in Omega 3
Ease of making: Moderate but not suitable for kids
Time taken: About an hour
Serves: About 25
You'll need:
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup orange juice – not from Navel oranges as it turns bitter
½ cup brown sugar plus another ½ cup brown sugar
2 cups crushed nuts, your choice – I like a mix of walnuts and pistachios, or macadamia nuts
4 cups SR flour
Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup lemon or lime juice
Method:
For the syrup:
Boil for two minutes, stirring well before it comes to the boil, so the sugar dissolves.
The biscuit mix:
Preheat oven to 200C
Mix oil, orange juice, one lot of sugar and flour. Now mix the nuts and extra sugar.
Take 1 tbsp of the biscuit mix and place a blob on baking paper on an oven tray. Now take a teaspoon of the sugar and nuts and press it into the biscuit. The biscuit mix will close over it, or mostly. Repeat with the rest of the mix.
Bake for 15 minutes until pale brown.
Take out and cool, then dip into the HOT syrup.
Use tongs, and dip QUICKLY, just in and out.
Let dry and store in a sealed container.
These will keep about a fortnight in a cool place – not necessarily in the fridge.
Olive oil and lemon nut biscuits
Note: No eggs or animal fats; high in Omega 3
Ease of making: Moderate but not suitable for kids
Time taken: About an hour
Serves: About 25
You'll need:
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup orange juice – not from Navel oranges as it turns bitter
½ cup brown sugar plus another ½ cup brown sugar
2 cups crushed nuts, your choice – I like a mix of walnuts and pistachios, or macadamia nuts
4 cups SR flour
Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup lemon or lime juice
Method:
For the syrup:
Boil for two minutes, stirring well before it comes to the boil, so the sugar dissolves.
The biscuit mix:
Preheat oven to 200C
Mix oil, orange juice, one lot of sugar and flour. Now mix the nuts and extra sugar.
Take 1 tbsp of the biscuit mix and place a blob on baking paper on an oven tray. Now take a teaspoon of the sugar and nuts and press it into the biscuit. The biscuit mix will close over it, or mostly. Repeat with the rest of the mix.
Bake for 15 minutes until pale brown.
Take out and cool, then dip into the HOT syrup.
Use tongs, and dip QUICKLY, just in and out.
Let dry and store in a sealed container.
These will keep about a fortnight in a cool place – not necessarily in the fridge.
Double Lemon-Lime Shortbread with Crystalised Violets
You'll need:
250g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup icing sugar (pure icing sugar, not icing mix)
1/3 cup cornflour
2 1/3 cups plain flour
3 tbsp dehydrated lemon juice, (a silky powder. I buy mine from The Essential Ingredient in Melbourne by mail order.)
Method:
Melt butter on low heat. Take off heat and mix in sugars till dissolved. Add dried lemon juice then flours. Mix well.
Spread mix thinly with your fingers on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake at 200 ºC for 10-20 minutes, till just browning at the edges. Do not overlook.
Remove from the oven with oven gloves or tea towel to protect hands. Mark into squares or diamonds or long triangles etc while still hot and soft. They will firm up as they cool and become very crisp.
Icing
1 cup pure icing sugar
Juice of half a lime.
Crystalised violets to decorate.
Or not, if you prefer.
If the lime is juicy you may need more sugar, if small, more juice. Mix well. It should be very thick, not runny.
Use a wide-bladed knife to smear icing on the COOL biscuits. Add your choice of decoration.
I also top the biscuits with a smear of melted white chocolate. The lemon is not as strong, but they are excellent.
Refrigerator cookies
Cookies are United States goodies. The word comes from the old New York Dutch word 'koekjes' - small, often spiced biscuits baked in ovens built into the side of the fireplace or grilled over the coals on a rack. Cookies - and biscuits - really only became popular in the 19th century, when more and more people had ovens of their own and didn't have to take the roast or bread down to the baker's, and they REALLY got going in the early 20th century, when kitchens would have biscuit barrels - or cookie jars if you were in the USA - for everyone to help themselves to.
When I was a kid just about all biscuits were home made - shop bought biscuits were a real treat. Now for most people it's the other way around.
Anyway, these are genuine US cookies, because that's where fridges first became popular too. These cookies are great as you can mix up a great batch, keep it in the freezer then take some out and bake them whenever you want them. - ten minutes to fresh cookie time. They're a good basic recipe too - make up the plain dough and add all sorts of other stuff to make 20 flavours of biscuit, oops, I mean cookie...
1 cup butter or marg
one and a half cups caster sugar
2 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter and sugar; add eggs one by one, then flour and vanilla. Roll into three long snakes. Wrap each in alfoil. Freeze. They may be kept in the freezer for about a month.
To use: Still frozen, slice cookies off the snake onto a greased tray; bake till very pale gold at 200 C. Remove from tray while warm and store in a sealed container.
A Few Possible Flavourings:
Chocolate: add 2 tbsps of melted chocolate to the mix.
Orange or lemon: omit the vanilla and add 2 tbsps grated lemon or orange zest.
Ginger: add 1 tb ground ginger.
Jam: put a splodge of jam in the middle of each cookie.
Peanut: add chopped peanuts - about three quarters of a cup - to the mix. They must be chopped or the mix may crumble.
Oatmeal: substitute 1 cup of rolled oats for 1 cup of flour (I like to add some ginger too to the oat cookies)
Choc chip: add 12 cups grated chocolate, well, maybe half a cup will do. Must be grated, not choc chip, as the mix may crumble.
Coconut: add half a cup coconut; this is also good with orange zest or a splodge of jam or both instead of vanilla.
White Chocolate Oaties
You'll need:
250 gm butter
6 tbsp golden syrup
½ cups brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats
1½ cups plain flour
1½ cup SR flour
1½ cups white chocolate pieces
Method:
Preheat oven to 150C
Melt the butter and syrup. Add the rest except the chocolate. Stir well, then leave to cool for ten minutes. Add the chocolate By now it will melt into swirls so handle gently – you don’t want it to amalgamate but stay swirly and slightly lumpy.
Place small balls on a tray lined with baking paper.
Press flat with a fork. Bake till pale brown – not too dark.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.
Chocolate honey oat squares
You'll need:
1½ cups rolled oats
1 cup sultanas or dried cranberries
1 cup currants
1 cup chocolate-coated blueberries (or extra dried fruit and ½ cup dark chocolate pieces)
250 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
3 tbsp. honey
Method:
Preheat oven to 200ºC
Melt butter. Add the other things. Press onto a baking tray covered in baking paper.
Bake at for 20 minutes, or till just beginning to brown.
Remove from the oven and cut into slices while hot. Leave in the tin till cold, as they are fragile when hot. Lasts up to two weeks in a sealed container.
Peppermint Cream Chocolate Shortbread
You'll need:
250g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup icing sugar (pure icing sugar, not icing mix)
1/3 cup cornflour
2 1/3 cups plain flour
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1/3 cup commercial soft icing, though you can make your own
1 tsp peppermint essence
250g couverture dark chocolate
Method:
Melt butter on low heat.
Take off heat and mix in sugars till dissolved. Add essence then flours. Mix well.
Spread mix thinly with your fingers on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake at 200 ºC for 10-20 minutes, till just browning at the edges. Do not overlook.
Remove from the oven with oven gloves or tea towel to protect hands. Mark into squares or diamonds or long triangles etc while still hot and soft. They will firm up as they cool and become very crisp.
When the biscuits are cool, mix the peppermint into the icing and top each biscuit with a small ball of the peppermint icing.
Melt chocolate in the microwave. Do not over-heat or it will turn grainy. As soon as it has melted use a knife to cover the ball of icing with chocolate, making sure it goes down to the biscuit and covers it too, so the ball doesn’t roll off. Add any decoration you like to the top. Cool till set. Keep in a sealed container in a cool place.
Plain lemon Shortbread
You'll need:
250g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup icing sugar (pure icing sugar, not icing mix)
1/3 cup cornflour
2 1/3 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon lemon essence
Method:
Melt butter on low heat. Take off heat and mix in sugars till dissolved. Add essence then flours.
Mix well.
Spread mix thinly with your fingers on a baking tray covered with baking paper and bake at 200 ºC for 10-20 minutes, till just browning at the edges. Do not overlook.
Remove from the oven with oven gloves or tea towel to protect hands. Mark into squares or diamonds or long triangles etc while still hot and soft. They will firm up as they cool and become very crisp.
Icing
1 cup pure icing sugar
Juice of half a lemon. If the lemon is large you may need more sugar, if small, more juice. Mix well. It should be very thick, not runny.
Use a wide bladed knife to smear icing on the COOL biscuits. Add small decorating balls, choc sprinkles or your choice of decoration.