Category Archives: Biscuits and Cookies

For Mama: Quickest Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Frosting

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My Mum’s favourite school holiday period was always the mid-year winter break. Two whole weeks of Mum and girls time when the days were short and crisp and the nights come early. Mum, Jess, and I would watch our favourite movies (including ‘First Wives Club’, ‘The Birdcage’, and ‘Under Siege’), or spend hours in silence as we were all caught up in our own books, or build huge Lego towns that took over half the lounge room. Those were our days. Some of the best days.

Last Friday Mum came into my room after her morning walk and climbed onto my bed, she said “I really miss snuggling with you and Jess in the mornings. Remember when you two would climb in with me after Dad had left for work and we would just lie there and cuddle. We had the whole day to do whatever we wanted,” she sighed “I know you two are grown up now, but sometimes I miss those winter mornings and our whole day movie marathons on school holidays.”

Mama, Jess, and Me.

Mama, Jess, and Me.

Mama, I miss them too sometimes. And even though I am (supposedly) ‘grown up’ now, I still need your hugs, they are  the meaning of home and comfort. I am so grateful that we had you at home for all those years while we were growing up. I still remember the flood of relief and happiness that would rush through me when I saw your face at the school gate when the afternoon bell rang. Whenever I am in doubt, scared, or frightened by the big wide world, your voice reminds me of the cloud of love that surrounds me and reassures me that everything will turn out okay in the end.

You are my favourite Miss Marple watching companion, my ‘person’ when I am troubled or when I have big fat exciting news, or when I want to daydream about the many possible futures that may lie ahead.

Mum/Mama/Mama Chickpea/Shrieking Trout (don’t ask, it’s a long story) – you are the meaning of love. I am pretty sure that if someone cut you open they would find at your core the meaning of love itself: sacrifice, total acceptance, unlimited affection, and always believing the very best of everyone. If I grow up to be half the woman you are, then I will be happy.

Thank you for being my Mama for 26 years, and Jess’s Mama for (nearly) 23 years. We love you more than we can show.

Happy Mother’s Day Mama.

Mmm...cookies...

Mmm…cookies…

Quickest Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Frosting

This really is the easiest cookie recipe and came about by accident – namely my impatience with reading a recipe when I really just want to be in the kitchen up to my elbows in butter and sugar. The cookies are soft and lightly chocolatey and the frosting is super sweet. These are the perfect treat to say thanks to Mum on Mother’s Day.

Ingredients:

  • 80 grams butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup icing sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon hazelnut extract (if you can’t find this, use vanilla essence)
  • 3/4 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 40 grams dark chocolate, melted and cooled

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 160C (320F) and line a large cookie sheet with baking paper.
  2. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and using a hand-held mixer beat all ingredients until smooth and shiny. (See I told you they were the quickest).
  3. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized round tip and pipe equally sized rounds onto the lined baking sheet. If you do not have a piping bag simply spoon equally sized portions of dough onto the sheet. Leave about 3cm between cookies to allow for spreading during baking.
  4. Slide the filled tray into the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through baking.
  5. Remove from the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
  6. Once decorated, make a cup of tea and share a plate of biscuits with your Mum.

Chocolate Frosting

  • 2/3 cup butter, softened
  • 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  2. Place butter into a medium size bowl and using hand-held mixer beat until very soft and pale. This will take about 2-3 minutes.
  3. Add the remaining frosting ingredients and beat until smooth and lighter in colour.
  4. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small star-tip (or other desired shape) and create a swirl on top of the cooled cookies. Sprinkle with coloured sanding sugar or other decoration. If you do not have a piping bag you can spread the icing on with a small knife and then decorate as desired.

Tell me, dear reader, how will you treat your Mum this Mother’s Day? Are you celebrating with breakfast, lunch, dinner, a phone call?

To all my other awesome Mama friends (looking at you Jenelle) – Happy Mother’s Day for Sunday.

More cookies

More cookies

Life Happened, and So I Made Cookies Instead (and then ate 2)

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Welcome, friends.

I know I promised you a recipe for a cake today. A carrot-y, nutty, moist, gluten-free carrot loaf that makes a rather pleasant breakfast for both rushed mornings and calm; however, when I tested the recipe (and my memory as I hadn’t written the recipe down the first time I made the loaf) the result was, well, tasty but just a little lack-lustre. (if you really want a breakfast-appropriate loaf cake see here, here, and here; or, go for these scrolls if you have the time)

And lustre is something that a thoroughly nourished life (and, by extension, a thoroughly nourished recipe) should never lack. So, in the spirit of fortitude (and greed) I turned to a cookie for comfort. Upon first bite the skies cleared (actually no, it was raining), the roses bloomed, and all was well in the world again. All memory of the (almost) failed carrot cake was gone.

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I am sure that when you taste these you will agree that a cookie is a great comfort in a world where sometimes your cake recipe kinda sucks, or you get a run in your stockings when you hop out of your car at work, or you spill your tea all over your laptop and printer minutes before you have to call a patient (hello 9am), or you forget to return your library books for the third week in a row (hello 11am), or sleep in an hour past your alarm and your boyfriend only makes it to work 15 minutes before his boss (hello Thursday morning).

A cookie reminds you that despite these (rather minor) disasters this is also a world where you have jam to make the cake (or anything really) taste better, no-one expects you to wear stockings and if you have hairy legs people shouldn’t be looking that close anyway, your patients are sweet and understanding and your laptop is somehow miraculously semi-waterproof, the library understands that you have never (like, ever) returned a book on time in your entire 22-year library history, and your boyfriend’s boss doesn’t care that he was 15 minutes late (and your own co-worker – the sweetest Jenny – makes sure you get a coffee just as you are about to defenestrate your computer, which you can’t anyway because you have a window-less office).

Cookies are good. Life is good.

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Softly-Comforting Coconut and Sultana Cookies

Makes about 14 cookies. You can use 100 grams of plain flour in place of the rice and coconut flours if you do not need these to be gluten-free. They will be just as delicious.

Ingredients:

  • 75 grams butter, softened
  • 60 grams brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/4 teaspoon coconut essence
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 1/3 cup moist shredded coconut (use dessicated if you can’t find this)
  • 80 grams almond meal
  • 50 grams brown rice flour
  • 50 grams coconut flour
  • 1/3 cup sultanas

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two baking sheets with baking paper – now you’re all set, time to get mixing.
  2. In a medium-size mixing bowl weigh in the butter and brown sugar and add vanilla essence and coconut essence. Cream these together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add the egg and beat until fully incorporated.
  4. In a separate bowl whisk together the salt, baking powder, coconut, almond meal, brown rice flour, and coconut flour.
  5. Add flour mix to the egg-and-butter mix and stir until the dough forms.
  6. Sprinkle in the sultanas and mix these through.
  7. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Make sure you distance the cookies as they will spread slightly.
  8. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet (you may need to eat one at this point for quality control purposes of course…)
  10. The cookies will keep in  an airtight container for a few days – if they last that long.

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Of course, as a scientist I must give the last word to an expert in the field.

Tell me, dear reader, are you a cookie for comfort person, or cake, or do you have a healthier way of dealing with first-world problems? On a different note, who was your favourite Sesame Street character? (I think we can all guess mine…)

Cottages and Cookies

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When I was a little girl surrounded by my colouring pencils with nothing but blank white paper and empty hours to fill my afternoon I dreamed of a cottage to call my own. A dark grey pencil sketched the outline of thick stone walls. Walls that would keep me warm during the long, cold winters, which I imagined essential for a landscape where such a cottage would exist. A chimney, too essential, poked up from one end of the house with a little puff of smoke to indicate that the colouring-pencil Amy was home somewhere within and baking something delicious in the hearth. Windows with diamond panes and rounded tops. Lead glass that would colour the sunlight streaming in on my wooden floors. A red front door, always a red front door, would greet any guests who meandered up the winding cobblestone path.

Out and about in Hobart

Out and about in Hobart

Every brightly-hued pencil was recruited to create the garden of my dreams: cerulean bluebells blossomed next to spears of lavender; fuchsia peonies unfurled their baby-soft petals under swaying smiley-faced sunflowers; and tall, leafy trees surrounded the borders of the property lending shady spots perfect for summer picnics and populations of birds and squirrels.

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Bright flowers on a dreary morning

I imagined that I would tread the boards of this house with an apron tied over floral skirts that would swish about my knees as I crept barefoot out to my vegetable garden to harvest produce for dinner. I would spend long afternoons walking over the emerald green hills and down to the ocean that always appeared in the background of my imaginary home. Evenings would be spent curled up in my favourite red tapestry wingback chair with a book in one hand, and a cup of tea balanced beside a pile of volumes yet to be read. I would fall asleep in my white-curtained canopy bed listening to gentle rains fall down to nourish my garden.

Friends would be always welcome to my scarlet door, and there would be tea parties galore. Especially in the heady days of late summer when all you ever really want to do is wear a big hat, lie in the garden, and sip iced tea while nibbling on dainty treats.

While I don’t have the cottage quite yet, I do have the perfect sweet treat to whisk me off to colouring pencil dreams again.

I couldn't resist a bite before I took the shot...

I couldn’t resist a bite before I took the shot…

 

Cranberry, Orange and Poppy Seed Cookies (gluten free)

If you aren’t catering for a gluten-free diet you can of course replace the gluten-free flour with 300 grams of ordinary plain flour.

Ingredients:

  • 150 grams butter, softened
  • 150 grams caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • Zest of one orange
  • 1 large egg
  • 300 grams gluten-free plain flour (I used Orgran brand)
  • 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, poppy seeds, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat to combine.
  4. Add flour mixture and cranberries to the batter and mix until completely incorporated.
  5. Pinch off tablespoons of mixture and roll into balls. Place on lined cookie sheets and press down gently with your fingertips to flatten slightly. Leave a few centimeters between cookies because they will spread a little during baking.
  6. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. The tops may crackle a little.
  7. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on cookie sheets before storing in an airtight container.

 

Davey Street, Hobart

Davey Street, Hobart

Tell me dear reader, where did you dream yourself away to as a child? Any treats that bring back tea party memories?

Angel in the Office: Almond, White Chocolate, and Cranberry Biscotti

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Every Thursday I make my way into the office, and although the traffic might for some inexplicable reason mean that my commute takes over an hour and a half, I smile, because Thursdays mean one of my favourite things: coffee with Jenny.

I am one of the lucky people who has fallen into a job that she enjoys, and even luckier because I am surrounded by an office of women who really care about the work we are doing, and the people we are working with.

There is a feeling of camaraderie and dedication and hope in the halls of our office, and I am honoured to work with every single one of the inspirational women in our research centre.

Lunch time view

Lunch time view

My office mate, my friend, my wonderful work-mama is Jenny. Through all the ups and downs of the past two years Jenny has been a calming influence, a shoulder to cry on, a partner in excitement, and a willing ear. Thank you, Jenny: for telling me tales of the sea and encouraging me to go out and see the world, for all the lunch times under the sunshine, for trips to the writer’s festival (are you free next year?) or yoga studio, for the coffee dates on a Thursday morning, and for being my angel in the office.

These are for you.

(P.S. You don’t have to share with the boys if you don’t want too…)

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Almond, White Chocolate, and Cranberry Biscotti

*To toast the almonds, spread out in a single layer on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool before chopping. You can store the toasted nuts for later use if you make a larger batch. Alternately, you can buy pre-toasted nuts in most supermarkets.

*Feedback from my last biscotti indicated that they were sliced a little too thick for some. This is completely personal preference. Me? I like ‘em chunky but really, it’s up to you.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 80 grams butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond essence
  • 2/3 cup white chocolate chips (or chopped white chocolate)
  • 1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped (see head note)
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 2/3 cup white chocolate, extra

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two cookie trays with baking paper.
  2. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flours, almond meal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, using a hand held mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle blades) cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated.
  4. Stir in vanilla essence and almond essence.
  5. Set mixer to low speed and add reserved flour mixture in three parts. The batter will start to come together into a thick dough and you may need to mix in the last addition with a wooden spoon.
  6. Using a wooden spoon mix in the chocolate chips, almonds, and cranberries.
  7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured bench and flour your hands lightly too as the dough may be a little sticky.
  8. Divide dough into two balls and place one on each tray. Pat out each ball into a log about 24cm (11inch) by 10cm (4inch).
  9. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until firm to the touch. The surfaces may crack a little, but that is fine.
  10. Remove baked logs from the oven, turn the oven off, and allow the logs to cool completely (about an hour).
  11. Once logs are completely cool preheat the oven to 140C (280F). Slice each log across ways into pieces about 1cm thick (see head note) and stand each slice up on the baking tray. After you have sliced both logs, place the biscotti back into the oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes.
  12. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
  13. After biscotti are completely cool, melt the extra chocolate and spread a little across one end of the biscuit. The easiest way to melt the chocolate is to place it into a small glass bowl and melt in the microwave in two 20-second bursts and then stir vigorously until completely melted and smooth.

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Allow chocolate to set and then serve to friends and family, or package them up in little cellophane bags. These make great Christmas gifts, especially for your own angels in the office.

Tell me dear reader, do you have an angel in the office? A mentor you particularly admire? Have you had a job that you really looked forward to showing up at work for?

Christmas is Coming, Life is Moving Forward, So I Made Cookies

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Some days life is hard, and great, and confusing, and exciting, and a little scary-wonderful. Sometimes a quiet year realises that its end is drawing near and hastens its course. Days flickers past your window without the opportunity to take stock of what is really important in that day. We become worried about having the right amount of things under the tree, about wearing the right dress to the office party, about the external and extraneous details rather than the internal and fundamental reasons behind this season and the opportunities it presents for us to look around and be grateful for our lives. Sometimes the speeding freight train of life is headed towards the cliff of a new year, and we need to pull on the emergency breaks and sit on the cliff for a while to admire the lights in the sky.

Trent and Jess on Friday night

Trent and Jess on Friday night

2012 has been a fairly quiet year for me, and then summer rolled around. Full of wonderful weddings and myriad celebrations, more intense training for the half marathon (only five weeks away), and the other pleasures of the Christmas and New Year season. December feels as though it is flying out of my grasp, and I don’t want to dismiss the beauty in each of the special occasions of this season. So, sometimes it is necessary to make cookies. Or sit in a quiet corner with a notepad and a pen, or zone out to some music while you take a walk, or however you manage to bring your heart and mind back to the present moment so that you can appreciate every wonder that you encounter.

Mama and Papa by the tree

Mama and Papa by the tree

Last Friday night my family embarked on one of my favourite Christmas traditions, which always reminds me of the true beauty of this time of year. Every year we visit the Christmas tree that is erected in King George Square in Brisbane. We have dinner, see the tree, and admire the Myer Christmas windows. To me, this is when Christmas really starts, and I relax into celebrating the holidays, and soaking up every part of the season.

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Cranberry, Almond, and Oat Cookies

Makes about 24 cookies.

These make wonderful Christmas presents, or an unexpected holiday treat for a neighbour.

To toast the almonds: spread out on a baking sheet and place in the oven while it is warming up. Allow them to cook for about 10 minutes. Cool, and then chop.

Ingredients:

  • 100 grams butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup almonds, toasted (see head note), and chopped
  • 1/4 cup cranberries

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F) and line two cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl, use a wooden spoon to cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy and light. Add egg and beat to combine.
  3. In a separate bowl whisk together the baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and flour. Add flour mixture to creamed butter mixture and beat until just combined.
  4. Add oats, chocolate chips, almonds, and cranberries to the dough and mix until all combined.
  5. Spoon out heaped tablespoons of mixture onto the baking paper. Leave about 3cm between cookies as they will spread a little when baking.
  6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove trays from oven and allow cookies to cool completely on a rack.

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Tell me, dear reader, how do you remind yourself to slow down at this time of year? Any exciting early holiday plans?

Almond and Spelt Biscuits

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My mother rarely wears perfume. She doesn’t need it; she smells of clean laundry drying in the sunshine, buttered toast with tea, and paperback novels. She smells like home.

I can count the number of times I have seen her wear lipstick on one hand. She is a jeans and t-shirt lady with regal bearing who does a wicked ‘Twist’.

She has the most beautiful hands. Strong and sure, mothering hands. Made to soothe, to gather in tightly, to hold onto mine so that I feel like nothing could ever go wrong as long as she is with me.

Mum has a storytelling voice. (Although I may not always have the ears to listen.) She has advice for every situation, and dispenses it in a voice whose accent is softened by remnants of her native Danish tongue. She has love to give, affection to spare, and I am so lucky to have her.

She taught me to be curious, to revel in the use and accumulation of a wide vocabulary, and to look in the mirror and smile at the woman who looks back.

Mum imparted to me the truly nourishing value of getting housework out of the way before morning tea, movie popcorn lunches, and afternoon naps.

The sweet, rich, floral and timber scent of almonds always reminds me of Mum: the marzipan that she loves as an after dinner treat, the whole nuts that usher Christmas time into our home, and the Linzer torte pastry that she let me eat the scraps of when I was a child at her knee in the kitchen.

These Almond and Spelt Biscuits are for my Mama. Best served with a cup of tea and a book, of course.

Almond and Spelt Biscuits

These biscuits make perfect holiday gifts as the dough can be rolled out and cut into any shape you desire. You could leave them plain, or sandwich the shapes together with raspberry jam as I have done here. The sweet almond flavour is a change from the usual gingerbread or spice cookies that arrive at Christmas. If you wanted to conjure even more Scandinavian spirit, you could use cherry jam to sandwich the biscuits.

Makes about 22 sandwiched biscuits

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond essence
  • 1 1/4 cups wholemeal spelt flour, extra for bench
  • 2/3 cup rice flour
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 1/2 cup raspberry jam
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond essence

Method:

  1. Place butter, sugar, and essences in a medium-size mixing bowl. Cream together with a wooden spoon (or electric mixer) until smooth and fluffy.
  2. Add spelt flour, rice flour, and almond meal. Mix into butter and sugar until it resembles a shaggy dough.
  3. Use your hands to clump the dough together into a large ball. Turn out onto the counter and gather all dough together, and pat into a large disc.
  4. Wrap dough in a double layer of plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 180C (360F) and remove dough from refrigerator.
  6. Line two un-rimmed cookie sheets with baking paper.
  7. Divide dough in half. Dust bench and rolling pin with extra spelt flour. Roll out dough to 5-7mm thickness (1/4 inch).
  8. Cut out desired shapes and place on lined cookie sheets – leave about 2cm (1 inch) between biscuits. Re-roll the dough as necessary and re-flour the bench and rolling pin as needed.
  9. Once you have finished cutting out all the shapes, place cookie sheets in the freezer for about 10 minutes (this helps biscuits keep their shape).
  10. Bake biscuits for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges.
  11. Remove and leave to cool completely.

Finishing:

  1. Once cookies are completely cool sandwich pairs together with a small amount of raspberry jam. Place on a sheet of baking paper. Mix together icing sugar, water, and almond essence. Spoon icing into a sturdy plastic sandwich bag and snip just the slightest bit off the end. Drizzle icing over the paired biscuits.
  2. Leave icing to set, and then serve.

Tell me, dear reader, is there a scent that conjures a loved one to your mind?

If you really knew me…

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You would know that I always use the pedestrian crossing because I am incredibly unlucky when it comes to oncoming traffic.

You would see that I get dressed up to go to the local shopping centre for baking ingredients, because there is nothing wrong with wearing heels when you just need some butter and sugar.

It’s called joie de vivre.

You might have seen that I love to dance, even though I’m not very good, and I am not afraid to bust out some moves in the middle of Target.

You would know that I never eat blue m&ms, and that all other m&ms must be consumed in colour pairs.

You would keep the tissues handy because I cry in an instant: an inspiring television ad, a line of poetry, a memory traipsing across my mind elicited by a strain of music.

You would know that I always write in pink pen because it makes me happy. That I know all the words to Piano man, American pie, and Country roads.

You would know that I am a hug-giver, an arm-toucher: I seek to connect through texture.

You would realise that when I do laundry, make dinner, clean the dishes, I am saying I care, for you.

You would know that deep in secret places the fact that you read my words counts more than anything else some days.

If you really knew me, you would know that when I offer you something I have cooked, I am offering you my heart.

The thousands of little things that we innately or overtly know about each other are real connection. They are the riches of everyday life, the anchor for memories, connection, and affection. Open your eyes to the little things about the people around you, what do you really notice about them, what do you really know?

Mocha Pecan Biscotti

This recipe was adapted from the luminous Dorie Greenspan’s volume ‘Baking: from my home to yours’. 
To roast the pecans: spread over a cookie sheet and bake at 180°C for about 8-10 minutes. Then remove from oven and allow to cool before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.
This recipe makes about 24 biscotti, but this will depend on how thickly you cut the dough before its second baking. I prefer a thicker biscuit, but you may have a penchant for a lighter wafer of mocha pecan goodness.

 Ingredients

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons finely ground espresso beans
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 80 grams butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup roasted pecans (see note), chopped
  • 100 grams dark chocolate, chopped
  • For finishing: 50 grams of milk chocolate

 Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together flours, cocoa powder, espresso beans, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Fit a handheld mixer with the paddle blades. On medium speed beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
  4. Add eggs and vanilla and beat together until thick – about two minutes.
  5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture in three lots. The dough will thicken rather quickly and you may need to finish mixing it by hand.
  6. Add chopped chocolate and roasted pecans and use a wooden spoon to mix these additions through the biscuit dough.
  7. Divide dough into two balls. Place each on a baking sheet and shape them into logs about 24cm long and 10cm wide.
  8. Bake logs in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes. The surface may crack and this is fine.
  9. Take logs out and leave the oven on. Cool the biscotti logs for about 20-30 minutes.
  10. Slice logs into pieces about 2cm thick (see header note). Stand each slice back onto baking tray and the bake again for about 10 minutes.
  11. Remove biscotti from oven and allow to cool completely.
  12. To finish: place milk chocolate into a small glass bowl and melt in the microwave in two 20-second bursts. Drizzle across cooled biscotti and allow to set.

These biscuits will keep in a well-sealed container on the bench for about a week. I doubt they will last this long though as they are the perfect accompaniment to a mid-morning cup of coffee. Perfect for dunking in a mug of hot chocolate as an after dinner treat, and could even be acceptable as a little bit naughty Sunday morning breakfast with an espresso. They also wrap up very well as a gift for someone you love.

Tell me dear reader, what would you want someone to really know about you?

Nourished Sweets: m&m cookies

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Sunday mornings are one of the most precious times of the week for me. I don’t sleep in particularly late. I don’t have a big breakfast. I don’t even sit in front of the television and watch cartoons. Sunday mornings are precious to me because every week my sister and I go for a wonderfully long walk. For nearly two hours this precious bundle of human energy is completely mine.

We stroll through the bush, and along the highway, up and over hills and down behind the retirement village. All the time talking about life in the past week. We talk about our life in ways that few other people can understand. I will miss her constant presence when her house is finally built and she moves out. Jess is all the things that I am not, and all the good things about me amplified and re-packaged in a smaller version. She is my living breathing conscience, my protector, the devil’s advocate when I need it, the one who accepts my crazy (even if she doesn’t like my dance moves – come on, the pelvic thrust, that’s still hip, right?). Jess was the one thing I ever really wished for in my life. All the stars aligned when she came into my life and my little sister is the best gift the universe (and my parents) has ever given me.

During our walks we talkabout the everyday things: the house she and her husband are building, my university assignments, the exciting projects she has been allocated at work, recipes we can’t wait to try. Our conversations soar into the sky sometimes and we talk about the ‘someday’ topics: children, more travel, what on earth I am going to do after I finish university, caring for our parents. We revisit childhood memories, re-argue old topics, heal wounds that remain from 22 years of sisterhood. We strengthen each other’s souls with chats about body image and acceptance, our shared eating philosophies, and a mutual love of all things butter, sugar, and vanilla. She is the other half to my whole. My friend. My little sister. On Sunday mornings she is all mine.

These are her creation. Go for a walk with someone you love, talk about the big things, and the little things, and then make them a batch of these. Love is guaranteed.

Jess’s m&m Cookies

Every couple of weeks Jess makes these for her husband Trent. She lets me eat the m&ms that don’t make it into the bowl. This recipe is adapted from an old family cookie recipe.

Yield: about 30 cookies, and about 1/2 a cookie of dough for the chef to test before they get baked.

Ingredients:

  • 170 grams butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
  • 1 whole egg, and 3 egg yolks
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 250 grams plain m&ms

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line 4 cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until well blended and smooth. Inhale buttery, vanilla scent and be thankful for your olfactory senses…
  3. Add egg and egg yolks, beat into creamed butter very well.
  4. Sift in flour and baking powder, mix into butter and egg mix until no pockets of flour remain.
  5. Stir in m&ms (yes, you can sneak a few before you mix them in completely).
  6. Using an ice-cream scoop, or a tablespoon, scoop out balls of mixture onto the lined baking sheets. Leave about 4 centimetres between the balls of dough as the cookies will spread out as they bake.
  7. Slide sheets into oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, swapping trays around halfway through baking.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Comfort and Cookies

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These end-of-winter days are the ones that drag the most. Showtime has come to Brisbane, the annual agriculture show called ‘The Ekka’ has swept into town: the harbinger of spring. However, showtime is always, always, accompanied by strong winds (even referred to by the weatherman/woman as ‘The Ekka’ winds), and recurring bouts of the cold. This week poor Mum succumbed to the cold, and I was able to play nurse as I have been at home most days. I find a little joy in making chicken soup, laundering the sheets, and disinfecting things, so I was more than happy to take care of Mum as much as she used to take care of my little sister and I when we got sick as little kids. Happily, Mum is making a full recovery, after telling me yesterday she was ‘happy to lie here and wallow in freakish misery’ while went out for a walk.

This morning when I woke up, I could feel a little niggle in the back of my throat that told me that despite near-obsessive levels of hand washing, clean strengthening meals (like this one – I have leftovers for tonight), and daily sunshine, I too might be experiencing what I like to call ‘temporary immune system failure’ (I don’t like the s-word, sick that is). I am not whinging here, merely providing some background to the baking that happened today. When I need comfort, when I need that something to fill an only-food-can-solve-this-problem hole – I turn to the humble chocolate chip cookie. There is something in the moistness of the crumb, the chunks of semi-sweet chocolate, and the very legend that accompanies the chocolate chip cookie that quietens the little girl that still lives inside my heart.

So I give you, the best gluten-free chocolate chip cookie I have yet to taste. Make it. Take one, sit a little while with a cup of tea and a blanket and just comfort yourself by enjoying something that tastes like what a hug feels like.

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 15 large cookies, you can be more moderate with the size if you would like. But really? Does moderation apply to chocolate chip cookies?

Ingredients

  • 100 grams butter, softened
  • 100 grams brown sugar
  • 100 grams caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 125 grams buckwheat flour
  • 50 grams brown rice flour
  • 50 grams almond meal
  • 300 grams chocolate of choice, chopped

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Weigh butter and sugars into a large bowl. Add vanilla and cream all ingredients together.
  3. Crack the egg into the bowl and beat into the butter mixture.
  4. In a separate bowl whisk together the buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, almond meal, salt, and baking paper.
  5. Add flour mixture to the egg and butter mix and stir until well combined.
  6. Dump in the chopped up chocolate (remember to test the chocolate first – quality control, people), and mix to distribute.
  7. Scoop out rounded tablespoons of cookie dough onto the prepared tray. Leave about 4 centimetres between the cookies as they will spread out as they bake.
  8. Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes. When you remove them from the oven allow them to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Of course, if you are like me and can’t wait for them to cool it is completely acceptable to make yourself a cup of tea and eat one straight off the tray.

Oh, yes, all better now.

My hands, and some cookies…

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Once, I had hands as soft as silk. They were pale, unlined, each finger was capped in a perfect shell-pink nail. Slowly these hands began to feel their idleness, to feel emptiness, and they longed to be of use.

Now my hands are still pale, but they are chapped, mottled with freckles, lined with fine scars, and embroidered with dots of calluses. They have lived, loved, provided. They have soothed, kneaded, mended.

They are chapped from early morning walks to greet the winter sun as it peeks over the pale horizon.

Freckles colour parts exposed to the sun on an afternoon in the garden, and on the drive to see a friend.

Scars map stories of dinner party desserts, mornings with an over-eager puppy, and the embroidery needles of long ago.

Calluses dot their palms where tightly-clutched yellow pencils rub while words are scribbled in the middle of the night, or a potato peeler’s weight rests comfortably doing the work needed for empty bellies to be filled.

These hands are not perfectly pretty.

But, these hands are perfectly mine. Each line, scratch, or scar tells a story. Each mark is a testament to my life.

These hands, they are my own.

Today, they stirred and rolled and served these White Chocolate Rolled Spelt Cookies. Please enjoy.

White Chocolate Rolled Spelt Cookies

Makes about 40-45 cookies

Ingredients:

  • 200 grams butter, softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
  • 1/2 cup white plain flour
  • 3 cups rolled spelt (you can substitute rolled oats if you don’t have spelt)
  • 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line three large cookie sheets with baking paper.
  2. Place softened butter, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a large bowl. Using a hand mixer beat ingredients until creamed and fluffy.
  3. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.
  4. Mix in flours, and then add rolled spelt and white chocolate chips. Mix well.
  5. Roll large teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place about two inches apart on the cookie sheets.
  6. Bake for 9-10 minutes; switching trays around halfway through cooking time. Keep a careful eye on the cookies as they are done as soon as they become golden on the edges.
  7. Remove trays from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.