Yesterday's Bake

Baking started early for the day was forecast to be unseasonally hot. If I was going to turn the oven on, it was going to be before the sun got too high in the sky. 

Wholemeal Pesto Bread Rolls

As I am trying to bake better breads, I decided to practise with wholemeal pesto bread rolls. I followed this Taste recipe, with the addition of a few scoops of tomato pesto I had in the fridge to use up, and then left my dough to rise out in the warmth of the sun. It doubled in size quickly and from it I made eight little bread rolls. 

Simple Weetbix Slice

While the bread roll dough was proving, I helped my son to bake this simple cereal slice. Just crushed Weetbix, butter and a few other pantry staples make a scrumptious afternoon tea time treat. Icing always seals the deal as far as my son is concerned anyway!

Nutty Choc-Chip Cookies

As soon as the slice was in the oven, I made a batch our favourite nutty choc-chip cookies. I used brazil nuts in these cookies this time but I sometimes make them with cashew nuts or macadamia nuts. I always mix in dark chocolate chips which I buy when they are on special. This batch of cookies went into the freezer to save for later.

All of this baking, and the resulting washing up, was finished well before lunchtime. With freshly baked and soft bread rolls for lunch, full of wholemeal goodness and pesto flavours, it was rather a delicious way to end yesterday's bake.

What have you been baking of late?

Meg

Chocolate & Oat Cookies

On a Sunday, I bake lunchbox snacks for the school and working week ahead. This saves us money and time as we are not buying prepackaged snacks and popping a slice of homemade cake or chunky cookies into a lunchbox is very quick and easy of a weekday morning when everyone is trying to get to where they need to be on time.

 Chocolate cookies with chocolate chips!

Recently, I came across a recipe for a scrumptious version of chocolate cookies. They are flourless and include almond meal. (My son can now take foods with nuts in them to high school whereas his primary school had a no nuts policy.) The nuts in them make them unsuitable for those with an allergy to nuts.

The original recipe, which I have tinkered with very minimally, comes from Amanda at Running with Spoons.  I simply reduced the sugar content a little more and used dark chocolate chips rather than mint chocolate chips. There are very simple cookies to make:

Chocolate & Oat Cookies

*Unsuitable for those with a nut allergy.*

1 cup organic quick oats

1/2 cup almond meal

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 Tablespoons brown sugar or coconut sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 large or 2 small eggs

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (melted if it is not in liquid state)

1/4 cup of tiny, dark chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 170C. Line a large baking tray.

2.  Mix all the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips, together in a large bowl. 

3.  Add the coconut oil and beaten egg to the dry ingredients. Mix well.

4.  Mix in the chocolate chips.

5.  Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, placing onto baking tray so there is room for them 

     to spread. Flatten top of each one slightly with your fingers.

6.  Bake for approximately 10mins (but keep an eye on them as they may cook faster in 

     your oven.)

7.  Allow to cool for 10mins on tray before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

8. Store in an airtight container (I put them in the fridge) for up to a week.

A chocolatey bowl!

These cookies are very chocolatey but not overly sweet. A more wholesome take on a chocolate cookie that is simple and delicious.

Do you have a favourite recipe for chocolate cookies?

Meg

Honey & Ginger Anzac biscuits

Sweet and oat-y and thought to be a welcome inclusion in care packages sent to loved ones fighting in a long-ago war so far from home, Anzac biscuits are an Australian tradition that take their name from those first brave ANZAC soldiers who landed on a far away beach at Gallipoli in Turkey, on April 25th, 1915. On that April date each year, our nation solemnly remembers those long-ago soldiers and all those who have come after them. 

Those original Anzac biscuits had a long way to travel to reach loved ones on faraway shores. While traditionally made with rolled oats and golden syrup, without eggs and with lots of sugar, there are many twists now on the original recipe that began appearing in recipe books from the 1920s.  Traditional or with a twist? Chewy or crunchy? However you like them best, they are a biscuit with ties to our nation's history.

ANZAC biscuits with a ginger twist!

I discovered this version, for Nourishing Anzac Biscuits, over at Georgia Harding's blog,  Well Nourished, while looking for a healthier version that had far less refined sugar. In my much-loved, old and splattered copy of the Day-to-Day Cookery Book by I.M. Downes, the Anzac Biscuit recipe calls for a whopping 3/4cup of sugar. While Georgia's recipe incorporates ground, mixed seeds, I have tweaked the recipe to make these biscuits without them. Here's how I made them:

Honey & Ginger Anzac Biscuits

100g butter

60g raw honey

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1/2cup wholemeal spelt flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2cup dessicated coconut

1/4cup of coconut or brown sugar (optional)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1.  Preheat oven to 170C.

2.  In large bowl, combine all dry ingredients, except bicarb soda. 

3.  Melt butter with honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Remove from heat as 

     soon as butter has melted.

4.  Add bicarb soda and stir in very gently as mixture becomes frothy.

5.  Pour frothy butter mixture into dry ingredients and mix well. 

6.  Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls with wet hands (as mixture is somewhat sticky)

      and place on lined baking trays. *Leave room between each biscuit to spread as it bakes.*

      Flatten each biscuit ball slightly with a fork.

7.  Bake until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool considerably on trays before 

     transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

8.  Store in an air-tight container. 

Try not to munch on too many of these before Anzac Day on April 25th otherwise you'll find yourself up early baking an extra batch!

Meg

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

The nuttiness of these scrumptious chocolate chip cookies comes from nut butter rather than chopped nuts mixed through the cookie dough. I've experimented with several different nut butters such as cashew, brazil, macadamia and hazelnut. Some I've bought and others I've made myself. My favourite one to use though is macadamia nut butter because I find the resulting cookies are lovely and moist. 

Scrumptious!

I came across the original recipe, from Paula over at the blog, Mixing It Up Hong Kong, a few years ago and I've only tinkered with it minimally. The original recipe is one written for the Thermomix but you can make it without one. As usual, I've reduced the sugar content. I find that less sugar is just fine as the chocolate chips add a sweetness too. I love to use dark chocolate chips in these cookies but you can use milk or white chocolate chips instead. I sometimes use nut butter instead of grinding whole nuts and blending with coconut oil as per the original recipe. This substitution is one of Paula's suggestions that you'll find at the bottom of her recipe page. It works well and saves some time too!

This quickly became my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Here's how I make it:

Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Unsuitable for those with nut allergy.)

80g oat flour or ground whole oats
120g macadamia nut butter (store bought or homemade)
35g coconut or rapadura sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large free range egg
100g - 120g wholemeal spelt flour
1 Tablespoon milk 
180g small choc chips


1.  Preheat oven to 180C and line baking trays.

2.  Beat nut butter, sugar & vanilla until very well blended.

3.  Add egg and beat again until well blended. The mixture at this point is quite "sticky".

4.  In a separate bowl, mix the oat flour and 100g of the wholemeal spelt flour.

5.  Make a well in the centre of the flours and spoon the sticky nut butter mixture into it.

6.  Add in milk and then mix until well combined. *While this cookie dough is fairly sticky, 
      mix in the extra 20g flour if you feel it is too wet at this point.*

7.  Gently mix through chocolate chips.

8.  Using damp hands, roll tablespoonfuls of cookie dough into balls and place on trays.
      Flatten each slightly with your fingers.

9.  Bake until lightly golden and cool on wire racks.

Every batch of these I make NEVER makes it into our biscuit tin without several or more cookies mysteriously disappearing from the cooling rack. I often have to stand guard just so they don't all disappear in one go!

Do you have a favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Meg