Holiday Baking

Well its school holidays here in Queensland, so before the kids started on the "I'm bored chant" I got them into the kitchen to make some Anzac Biscuits.

We made them with the Thermomix & used the recipe from the Everyday Cookbook.

The kids had a blast reading out the recipe & rolling into balls.  Tomorrow we might try a choc chip recipe :)

Here is a photo of our finished product. YUM!

TM Salted Caramel Fudge

Been busy again today in the kitchen.... well the TM does most of the work ;)

I found this recipe on the Thermomix forum I think... if I find it again I will post the link.

1 can condensed milk

250g Brown Sugar

30g Glucose syrup

65g Golden Syrup

125g butter, chopped

200g White Chocolate

1 teaspoon sea salt flakes



Add condensed milk, butter, brown sugar, glucose syrup & golden syrup to TM 

bowl. Cook 100 deg for 8mins - speed 3-4. Give sides of bowl a quick scrape.

Cook for a further 20mins varoma temp - speed 3-4

Add chocolate - stir through 10-15secs - reverse - speed 3-4

Pour into lined slice tray. Smooth top & sprinkle with salt flakes. Set aside for 

30mins then refrigerate till firm. Slice into small squares 

TM Choc Mint Fudge

Here is the Choc Mint Fudge recipe that I made.  I found the recipe on the Thermomix recipe Community here  It turned out perfectly :) & tastes sooo good.

Ingredients

Choc-Mint Fudge
250 grams Dark Chocolate Bites 
250 grams Milk Chocolate Bites 
1 tin condensed milk 
1 tablespoon butter 
2 Peppermint Crisp Bars crushed

Preparation

Choc-Mint Fudge

1.

Add Dark Choc Bits, Milk Choc Bits, tin condensed milk and butter into Bowl

Cook at 100 degrees for 10 minutes on Speed 3

Scrape down sides then add the crushed Peppermint Crisp bars.  Stir thru on Reverse  for 5 seconds

Pour into a lined rectangle tray, leave to cool.  Then put into refrigerator to set.  Once set, cut into small bite-sized pieces.

This is a very sweet fudge - but delicious!  Would be a great gift.

Tip

You may wish to add an extra crushed Peppermint Crisp bar on top of the fudge - do this immediately after pouring into tin before it sets

Here is a photo of my fudge :) Enjoy

Christmas Baking

Well its that time of year for Christmas baking.  Since we are heading down the coast to visit family for Christmas I thought I would take some yummy treats with me.  My first Christmas with my Thermomix.  This machine has made making all these treats so much easier.

First up I made Rumballs... here's the recipe that I used.

8 Weet-bix
1 tin Condensed Milk
1 handful of Sultanas
2 tblespoons cocoa
50g Coconut (1/2 cup)
Rum to Taste
more coconut to roll 

1.  Place Weetbix into Thermomix bowl.  Crush (Speed 5 for 10 secs).  Add Coconut & coconut & mix.  Add Sultanas & mix (speed 5 for 10 secs).  Now add the condensed milk & mix well (speed 5 for 20 secs).  Add rum to taste & mix again to incorporate.

2.  Pick up small amount & roll into a ball (if you are finding the mixture sticks too much, wet your hands a little to help), roll ball into extra coconut.  Refrigerate.

*Note* If your mixture is too wet, just add some more weetbix.

Enjoy.

Finally time

Its been AGES since I have been on here.  Thought it was about time to get back on the wagon.  Will hopefully start posting things at least once a week.  Will leave you with a photo of our puppy Ivy.

First time using Royal icing!!

I have always wanted to make biscuits & decorate them using Royal icing, so this weekend after finding inspiration from this blog Bakeat350 I thought, well why not ;)

I used one of Bridget's biscuit recipes found HERE  these biscuits were so very simple to make.  I rolled & used various cookie cutters.  I decided to do some plain with a freckle chocolate on top & then iced the others with the royal icing.  I have learnt so many things already with this first attempt, I needed to make the icing a little thinner to pipe around, same with the flooding icing, but its all trial & error & will hopefully do a whole lot better next batch :)  Here are the pics.

Choc Chip Slice

Here is the other recipe that I baked on the weekend.  I love to make slices as I find them quick & easy to make for Kev & the kids lunches.  Anyway, you can find the recipe here  

Choc Chip Slice Recipe  I love that website :)

Here is a photo of the finished product :)

Till next time, happy baking ;)

Jesse

Easy Cupcakes

Well finally got my stuff a bit more sorted & after a lovely weekend of cooler weather, rain & wind, I finally got around to baking something.  The kids were after cupcakes so I pulled out the trusty easy as recipe that I got of a forum a while ago.  These are so very yummy & I iced them with Buttercream Icing

Here is the recipe

Best-Ever Cupcakes:

Into 1 cup metric (250ml) measuring cup, place 2 eggs, then fill to the top with thickened cream. Pour into mixing bowl.

Beat 1 minute with electric mixer.

Add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 3/4 cup caster sugar.

Beat 3 mins.

Add 1 cup SR flour (sifted), fold into mixture with wooden spoon until incorporated.

Place mixture into 12 muffin tins (lined with paper cases), bake in mod oven until light golden and cakes spring back when lightly touched in the centre.

Ice with buttercream icing 

Decorate :) thats the fun part ;)

I have a Choc chip Slice baking away in the oven & will share that recipe tomorrow :)

Till then, happy baking :)
Jesse

Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

Well have finally started to find some of my baking things in the mountains of boxes that are swamping the house from the move.  I've been itching to get back into baking some goodies!! I don't have my pantry fully stocked yet, so had to find a recipe using the ingredients I knew I had.  Did a google search & found this blog

PERFECT.  Nice & easy to make.  Its in the oven atm but will post a picture & let you know how it tastes tomorrow :)

Jess

Back in Action

Woohoo, we have found a house to rent & will be moving in next Saturday.  I can't wait to get all my stuff unpacked & to get back into the swing of things!!! Will hopefully have something up within the next two weeks :)

Sorry

Just wanted to touch base with any of my blog readers.  We've had a busy couple months, our family has moved & my husband has started a new job.  I won't be doing any baking till I get all my things out of storage, which is god knows when as we don't have a permanant house yet, lol.  I hope to be back blogging in March :)

Birthday Cake

Just wanted to show off some pictures of my daughters birthday cake that I made.  I did cheat & use packet cake mixes.  I just used my Buttercream icing recipe for the icing.

Will hopefully be back into making some things on the lead up to Christmas!!

Yankee Crunch Slice

I made this slice the other day, one of our family favourites that I got from my mum.  Very quick & easy to make.  Didn't get a chance to get a photo as it was eaten within 24hrs of making it, lol.  Hope you enjoy it.

YANKEE CRUNCH

¼ to ½ cup butter or marg

¾ cup either white or brown sugar

Melt together on stove. Take off heat & add:

1 tablespoon Cocoa

1 cup Self-raising Flour

½ cup coconut

Mix well.  Turn out into slice tin & bake for 20-25mins.  Ice whilst warm to hot.

Icing:

1 cup icing sugar

½ cup coconut

1 teaspoon butter or marg

1 tablespoon cocoa

Combine together with a little hot water… spread over slice.

Milo Biscuits

Been a busy week for me this week, back to work after my son was sick last week & school started back for my daughter.  Got home from the school pickup this afternoon & felt like baking something simple, so found my recipe for these Milo Biscuits, which are yummy.  Got the mix all happening when I realised someone has been raiding the Milo tin (hmmm yes you, husband of mine) and there was only a spoon of milo left, so I chucked in some chocolate drinking powder & some colour sprinkles for the kids.  Anyway, they turned out great & the kids just love them :)

& here is the recipe

Milo Biscuits

Ingredients
• 125 grams butter
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 ¾ cup self raising flour
• ½ cup Milo

Instructions
1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees C.
2. Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla essence in large bowl until light and creamy. Beat in egg.
3. Combine dry ingredients. Fold dry ingredients into egg mixture.
4. Take teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls. Place on greased oven tray and flatten with fork.
5. Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Conga Bars

While watching Huey's Kitchen last week, he made these Conga Bars .  I thought they looked rather easy to make & my hubby is a big fan of slices etc, I thought I would give it a go.  The mixture was quite runny, but it cooked up nicely.  The chocolate settles to the bottom of the slice, making the nice layered look.  They taste pretty good & will make again.

And here is the recipe

Conga Bars 

Ingredients
225 gm brown sugar
4 large eggs
250 gm unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
150 gm self-raising flour, sifted
300 gm good quality dark cooking chocolate, chopped
cooking oil spray


Method
1.   Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C normal).
2.   Beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl using an electric mixer until smooth.
3.   Then add the melted butter, vanilla, salt and flour, continually mixing.
4.   Add the chocolate and fold in with a wooden spoon. Then transfer the mixture to a lightly oiled slice tin,     smooth the top and give it a bang on the workbench (to remove any air bubbles). Cook in the oven for about 20-30 mins until just set, but still a little soft in the centre.
5.   When ready, set aside to cool before slicing into bars.