Chocolate Crinkles

Some months ago I bought a pack of Chocolate Crinkles from the local bakery. Etienne and I decided we needed a piece each before we drove off. As we bit into it, we both looked at each other and laughed. It was hard as rock! It looked pretty enough, though. Since then I've been meaning make some myself. With a bit of time to spare over the weekend, I set out to make some. This recipe yields a cake-like cookie. Nice and crusty on the outside but cakey on the inside. So now I'm confused – what's a Chocolate Crinkle really supposed to taste like? I had cut down the sugar by half, but I could've done with a bit more sweetness. And more cocoa. Definitely more cocoa.

I know I have another recipe somewhere in my library of cookbooks and will give this another shot. I can see this cookie becoming a favourite – once I get the recipe I like. Still, I will post this recipe. It's perfect for when you need a quick treat. It's a 'dump-in-and-mix' method and the dough, when chilled properly, behaves well in little hands, so the kids can participate in the making.

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup cocoa powder (I'd up this to 1/3 cup)

4 tbsp oil

1 cup sugar (I'd up this to 1 ½ cups)

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 cups flour

Icing sugar

Dump all the ingredients except icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix till well combined and no traces of butter are left. (It's important that the butter be softened. If not, it will take a long time to be incorporated into the dough and prolonged mixing will 'toughen' the flour, resulting in a very dense and chewy cookie). Chill the dough for an hour for easier handling. (Of if temperatures are low, like it is now, you can go right ahead and roll it). Drop spoonfuls into a plate of icing sugar (I used my trusty ice-cream scoop), roll and generously coat with the sugar. Place on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool for 1-2 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack. Store in airtight containers.

Cookie Decorating Day

Cookie decorating day at Ewen's kindy

Teacher gets in on the action

Christmas is a time I look forward to. As a child, Christmas was extremely enjoyable. Then again, isn't it for every kid? I now realise that Christmas for adults is a whole different ball game. Yes, it's enjoyable. Yes, it's festive. But it does take a lot of effort on the part of the adult to make Christmas enjoyable for the kids – buy and decorate the tree, buy the presents, make the food.... Since Christmas is usually very low key for us, we do try to keep the spirit alive by doing stuff with the kids. I realised a long time ago that Christmas is what you make of it, and I want to create traditions, sights, sounds and memories for them to remember what Christmas is, and hopefully pass on to their own kids.

For Ewen, this was a great opportunity for me to get involved with his school. Ewen's kindy teachers were very supportive when I asked if they'd like me to conduct a Christmas activity for the class. We decided on a Christmas story and cookie decorating. The kids were enthralled with the Nativity Story but really got excited when it came to the decorating. All sorts of colours and designs, some neat, some messy. For some, the lure of the cookies was too great and was promptly bitten into. Others decided to save it for mom.

I used this simple recipe from Betty Yew's Kitchen Secrets.

225g self raising flour
1 ½ tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
125g butter
125g brown sugar
1 small egg, lightly beaten

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, Rub in butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar. Add egg and a little milk to make a stiff dough. Knead till smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for an hour. Roll out the dough a little at a time and stamp out with cookie cutter. Place on greased baking trays and bake in preheated 190C oven for 10-12 minutes (depending on thickness and size of cookie). Allow to cool slightly on tray and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Decorate with your favourite buttercream, glaze icing or royal icing recipes.

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars - over 100 star shaped sugar cookies for classmates and teachers

To celebrate Children's Day (June 1) and Etienne's 9^th birthday (May 30), and from the many requests by his friends, I decided to bake a huge batch of cookies for Etienne's classmates. Some of his classmates got wind of my baking abilities, and often when I pick him from school, they hint (OK, downright ask) for cookies. Etienne gets lots of candy on his classmates' birthdays,and he requested the same. I'm not a fan of children eating candy. Aside from the sugar, there are other additives and colouring to be concerned about. A few is fine, as you really cannot separate candy from kids. But I find the consumption by some kids truly frightening. So, for 47 kids X 2 cookies per kid plus a few teachers, Sugar Cookies was the way to go.

I used the sugar cookie recipe by my friend Terri, which is really a pate sucre, and frosted them with a simple glace icing. For a co-ed class, stars was the obvious choice. I got this really pretty picture of the stars cooling on the wire rack. This is a sweet cookie, as the name suggests, but not overly sweet that you taste nothing else. I used lemon juice in the glace icing to offset the sweetness, and that worked out great.

Butter 1 cup

Sugar 1 cup

Egg 1 large

Vanilla essence 1 tsp

Baking powder 2 tsp

Flour 3-4 cups (I started with 3 cups but found the dough still too sticky and just added on till I got the right consistency).

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift flour and baking powder and add to batter till a stiff dough is achieved. Roll out between sheets of plastic (I recycle the waxed bags from boxes of cereal), dusted with a little flour. Cut out using cookie cutters. Bake 4-8 minutes in a pre-heated 200C oven. Cool on a wire rack and decorate with glace icing.

Glace icing

I use the 'eyeball' method when making glace icing. Just add lemon or orange juice, milk or even plain water to icing sugar till you get a drizzling consistency. Be aware that very little liquid is required to melt down the icing sugar. Add food colouring of your choice. I use a small resealable bag to pipe. Cut a small tip off one corner and pipe away. The resealable bag prevents any back-flow and keeps any icing from drying out. Small bits of dried icing getting in the way while you work is quite irritating. If you have any leftover, just seal the clipped corner, and it keeps neatly in the fridge.

Butter Cookies

Melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies - doesn't look fantastic but tastes great.

"Mom, spell my name!!"

I had half an afternoon to spare, and thought I'd fill up the cookie container. The Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip cookies are all but gone, and the sweet tooth in us all was pretty much craving for something satisfyingly...sweet! I scanned the cookbooks and found this simple Butter Cookie recipe. Cream the sugar and butter, plonk in the dry ingredients and pipe them out. Easy peasy, and they should be ready before the dinner rush. All was smooth running till I had to pipe it out. While the dough was soft, it wasn't soft enough. We had a wrestling match - the piping bag and I. I ripped 4 bags in total. (Well, the bags were thin to begin with). There were moments when it piped out smoothly and then hit a snag again. I suspect it's due to the unusually cold spring we've been having. 'Room temperature' has been rather low, and this kept the butter mixture harder. I was going to give up on it as it took me longer than I had wanted.

After I had cleaned up, and nursed my sore hand, I sat down to see if my efforts were worth it. And it was! We were rewarded with short, melt-in-your-mouth cookies, bursting with the flavour of butter. I recommend getting the best butter you can afford. I will certainly make this again, but will do one of two things - either wait for warmer weather or get myself a cookie press. (I think you know which one I'll choose *grin*). Hmm... maybe a larger nozzle might work too?

All purpose flour 250g
Corn Starch 3 tbsp
Butter 250g, diced
Icing Sugar 100g
Vanilla Essence 1 tsp

Sift flour and corn starch together. Cream butter and icing sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla essence. Add flours and mix till well blended. Pipe out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a preheated 175C oven for 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sweet & Simple Bakes' Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies - hearty and completely addictive

OK, so I'm excited about this one. Not because it's a Chocolate Chip cookie (which is a favourite in our house) but because it's for my very first virtual bake party! Sweet & Simple Bakes is a blog set up by two ladies who are passionate about baking and wish to promote the art. Rosie and Maria present a recipe each month and everyone is invited to bake along. I'll not spoil the fun here, so click on the links to find out more.

My official flour 'stir-it-up' guy

The cookie itself was very, very good. I followed the recommended recipe almost to the T. Just full of oatmeal, which makes it hearty. I substituted a small handful of choc chips for raisins, and that brought just the right balance of sweet/fruity. I expected it to spread more while baking, and so increased the baking time to accommodate the mass. This resulted in a harder cookie than I would have liked, and will remember to shorten the baking time next time. This will definitely be a common feature in our house.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Butter 110g (4oz), softened
Caster sugar 110g (4oz)
Soft brown sugar 110g (4oz)
Egg 1
Water 2 tbsp
Vanilla extract 1 tsp
Porridge oats (rolled oats) 250g (9oz)
Self-raising flour 110g (4oz)
Salt 1 level tsp
Chocolate chips, raisins or chopped nuts 110g (4oz)

Preheat the oven to 180oC (350oF), Gas Mark 4. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer until soft. Add the sugars and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, water and vanilla extract while still beating. Reduce the speed and gently mix in the oats, flour, salt and raisins to form a dough. Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place slightly apart on two baking trays. Bake in the oven for 12-25 minutes or until light golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre. Allow to cool on the trays for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool.