M&M Cookie Bars

Tomorrow is Christmas!  Can you believe it?!  This year has gone so fast, and to be honest it doesn't even feel all that festive for Christmas this year, to me anyway.  I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, happy and healthy Christmas... although if you make these, you may find yourself a little less healthy than you would like ;)  MUAHAHA

So yes, Christmas Eve baking.  A friend of mine from highschool days (*shoutout to Danielle*) made these the other day, posted a picture to Instagram, and I immediately perked up because they were so colourful and looked so amazing!  I asked for the recipe, with which she duly obliged and here we are.  You know how I ADORE anything rainbow and colourful, so I have lots of photos with this post!

In my mind, they looked like fudge brownies that aren't brown, with pretty M&Ms strewn through it, so I was pretty excited to make them.

INGREDIENTS
2 & 1/8 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
170g butter (or 12 tbsp), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla essence
340g of M&Ms (plain)

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
• Grease a pan (9x13 inches, or  9x9 if you want it thicker) if you're not using a silicone one (honestly, where would we be without silicone these days)
• In a medium bowl, sieve together flour, baking soda and salt
• In a large bowl, whisk melted butter and sugar together until thoroughly combined (no lumps!)
• Add egg, yolk, vanilla and mix well
• Slowly fold in the dry ingredients using rubber spatula - don't over mix!
• Fold in 1 cup of the M&Ms
• Put mixture into the pan, smooth down, and sprinkle remaining M&Ms on top, pressing them lightly into the mixture
• Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the tops are starting to turn golden, the sides are beginning to pull away from the pan, and it is slightly firm to touch
• Cool completely, then cut

Usually most things taste AMAZING right out of the oven, still warm.  HOWEVER.  This is not one of those recipes.  Trust me.  Wait until they are completely cooled before you eat them.  Then you get the full impact of the 'thick and chewy' description.  They are MUCH better cold.  Weird, but true.  Just go with it.

These are delicious, however, for my family I think they might be a one-off.  They are SO so sweet, even for me with the biggest sweet tooth ever.  I cut it into 16 pieces, but I think I should have cut them even smaller, because they are so sweet I can't even finish one whole piece!  Probably gonna give most of them away because my family can't eat it all, in addition to the food we have for Christmas day tomorrow!!!

Merry Christmas folks!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.whatmegansmaking.com/2013/01/thick-and-chewy-mm-cookie-bars.html

Cornflake Cookies

Just a quick, delicious recipe for biscuits that I love.  It's really easy, and I've been meaning to make another batch for my blog, since I haven't made these since I was about 11 years old.  They are so messy to make but that's the fun of them!!  

INGREDIENTS

250g butter
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
2 cups cornflakes
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sultanas (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
2 extra cups of cornflakes

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter and sugar well
• Add eggs, one at a time
• Fold in vanilla, sifted flour, (sultanas, chocolate chips) and 2 cups of cornflakes
• Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and roll in extra cornflakes
• Bake for 15 to 20 min

Be warned, they go golden, but are soft when they come out of the oven, so use a flat spatula to lift them off the tray/baking paper, otherwise they'll just fall apart.

THESE ARE SO YUMMY.  'Nuff said.  (Oh, and light and chewy and just ... om nom nom)

Nannas Chocolate Chip Biscuits (aka Cookies)

There's a bit of a funny story to this recipe.  It was a recipe my mum always used when I was growing up, making chocolate chippies to go in my lunch box for school.  When I was a bit older, I noticed that the recipe she used was written in my Nannas handwriting, so assumed the recipe was hers.  I was quite thrilled, thinking here in my hands I had a great heirloom family recipe, passed down through generations of women in my family, and that it could become legendary, because these chocolate chippies had a reputation of deliciousness. 

 

One day, when I was talking to my Nanna, I asked her about it, wondering if it came from my great-grandma.  Boy, was I wrong.  Nanna turned around and said "Ohh that old recipe?  I got that off the side of a packet".  -_-  So much for family heirloom.  *dreams shattered*  But seriously, I was quite gutted!

Anywho... this is my all time favourite, go-to chocolate chip bikkie recipe.  It's practically never fail, and for my lazy self, it's perfect with few steps, few ingredients, and maximum taste!  Whenever I make these bikkies, I always seem to give some away to friends/family, and they always say what amazing bikkies they are, and how they wish theirs would turn out so well.  Well, friends/family, now you can make some yourself! :)

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp cocoa

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 & 3/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

100g chocolate chips

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter, sugars and vanilla
• Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well after each addition
• Mix in flour, salt and cocoa
• Mix in chocolate chips
• Roll into balls and set on oven tray with baking paper
• Press with fork
• Bake for 10 minutes, or until they look done :)

So I was a bit dumb, and burned a tray of the cookies, which is why I'm only showing you half of the cooling rack!!  I'm learning the lesson the hard way to not use FANBAKE on the oven when baking cookies/muffins etc.!!!  Silly silly silly.  It bakes too fast and burns easier.  Fanbake is better reserved for casseroles and such.

But anyway, they still taste ok, they're just not that pretty, and they're VERY crispy haha.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies (aka Biscuits)

I didn't have the highest expectations for these biscuits if I'm going to be honest.  I thought "ooh white chocolate, that's mum's favourite chocolate, I might try this recipe"... but OMG it's going to be a new favourite recipe!

These biscuits came out SO amazingly delicious.  I couldn't believe it, so fluffy, and light and puffy.  I didn't think the cranberries would be so delicious either, as I'd never really eaten dried cranberries, but they're little nuggets of tangy chewy goodness!

This recipe was also made more amazing by the fact that one of my friends was here at my house for the first time, and we baked them together which was totally fun!

Normally when I make biscuits they go all flat and chewy, but these ones puffed up gloriously and didn't deflate after we pulled them out of the oven!

WARNING: be careful when baking them, because they go from golden to starting-to-burn-and-smoking-out-the-oven REALLY quickly.  So you want to keep a close eye on them to make sure they don't get TOO brown and your oven doesn't start to smoke.  

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup softened butter (about 150g)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups oats
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
6 ounces dried cranberries (about 170g)
1 cup white chocolate chunks/chips

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 190 deg C.
• Combine oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
• Cream butter white sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and the eggs one at a time, mix after each addition.
• Add dry ingredients ½ at a time.
• Mix until just combined.
• Add dried cranberries and white chocolate.
• Flour your hands, and roll spoonfuls of cookie mixture and lay on a flat baking tray
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until the cookies are just set and starting to turn golden
• Cool on a rack before eating!

I bet you can't resist eating more than one when you first have a cookie warm out of the oven!  SO gooooooood!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.acooksquest.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/recipe-49-cranberry-white-chocolate.html