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)

Banana Sultana Loaf

Trying my best to do more new recipes now that uni is not so demanding!  Here is one I did today.  I picked it out of one of my mum's old recipe books, because we had some manky looking (aka very ripe!) bananas to use up, and I didn't feel like making icing for a cake, or muffins, and we didn't have any oats to make my usual banana oatmeal muffins!

One problem I had with this recipe is that it was all in weight measurements, as opposed to cups and tablespoons/teaspoons and that was a bit of a pain.  Luckily we had scales :)

INGREDIENTS
90g butter
1 large egg
1/4 tsp baking soda
60g sultanas
125g sugar
220g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 ripe bananas

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C
• Cream butter and sugar
• Add egg and mix well
• Add in sifted dry ingredients
• Add in mashed bananas and sultanas
• Pour into a greased (or silicone) loaf tin
• Bake for 50 mins
• Serve warm with butter

 This was a pretty easy recipe, aside from all the measurements!  Came out a bit dry, then realised it was in a part of the recipe book that said it was part of the 'buttered sweet' section haha so best to serve it with butter!!  It tastes great too! :)

Recipe Inspiration: Rally Cookbook

Feijoa Loaf

Feijoa is a fruit that is abundant particularly in Autumn, and is most common in New Zealand.  It's quite unusual, an acquired taste... acquired in so far as it helps having grown up with them.  Many people have feijoa trees in their gardens and our friend (she's British) doesn't like them, and so she gave us a bagful from the tree in her garden.  

This recipe inspiration came from a website which exclaimed it was the "easiest feijoa loaf ever".  I disagree.  Easy usually means quick, but the whole steps of boiling the feijoa and sugar and butter, then waiting for the mixture to cool down... what a pain in the butt!!! 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup feijoas (the fleshy bit, not the skin)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
50 g butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• Put feijoas, sugar, butter & water in a saucepan
• Bring to the boil, cook gently for 5 minutes
• Remove from heat and allow to cool
• Carefully stir in the dry ingredients & egg. Don’t overmix!
• Pour into loaf tin, and sprinkle over a mixture of raw sugar and cinnamon (about 2tbsp and 1/2 tsp) - this is optional
• Bake in a loaf tin for 50 minutes

This loaf was a slight fail in my opinion.  It came out quite dry, I think I may have overcooked it, cos I forgot the oven was on fan-bake, rather than normal bake.  The sugar and cinnamon on top gave it a nice crunch though, and I think this was my favourite part of it.  

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.mividacontigo.com/food/the-easiest-feijoa-loaf-ever

Banana Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins

Time for another new recipe I tried!  This time, it came about not through browsing Pinterest, like most of my other recipes, but instead, me wanting a twist on plain old banana muffins/loaf/cake.  I didn't want to make a cake, and every time I use cake batter in muffin tins, it comes out too dry.  So I decided to google a recipe for banana muffins, but not plain old boring ones either.  I wanted something different.

So I found a recipe for cranberry banana muffins.  And it sounded yum.  Only issue was, I had no idea what "flaked bran cereal" was, yet I had seen recipes for oatmeal banana muffins.  I figured oatmeal and banana went together ok having read that, so I substituted oatmeal (aka dry porridge/rolled oats) for that.  

INGREDIENTS

1 & 1/4 cups flour (you can also use wholemeal)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup if you prefer it not so sweet)
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 & 1/4 cups oatmeal (aka rolled oats/dry uncooked porridge)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180ºC
• If not using a silicone muffin tray, then lightly grease a muffin tin, or line with cupcake liners
• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt
• In another bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, oil, milk and bananas
• Stir in oatmeal
• Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just blended
• Stir in cranberries
• Divide evenly among prepared muffin cups
• Sprinkle with a little raw sugar on top - gives a nice crunch, but this is optional
• Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean
• Leave muffins in tin to cool, then remove to a rack to cool completely (or serve warm)

This recipe with these measurements made (for me) 12 ordinary size muffins and 12 mini muffins.  However, since I was hesitant to overfill the muffins, they were quite small and dense, and didn't rise much.  Next time I will fill up the muffin cups a bit higher.  :)  

As for the flavour, it was amazeballs!  The cranberries soaked up the liquid, they became sweet and juicy, the banana was good, and the raw sugar I had sprinkled on top gave a delicious crunch to it.  The oatmeal and banana made the muffin nice and dense, which will be great for lunches/morning tea.  Definitely a keeper!!!

Recipe Inspiration:  http://www.sevenspoons.net/blog/2006/1/13/plain-january-jane.html?lastPage=true#comment18152293

Passionfruit White Chocolate Muffins

Wow so it's been over a month since I've posted on here, and NO, I haven't been SLACK... I've just been too busy with university and work and things to have any time to try any new recipes!!!  Such is life.

Anywho, we had some passion fruit to use up, courtesy of our neighbour, and no idea what to do with it.  Coincidentally, a friend of mine sent me a message on FB with this recipe (shout out to Mel! :D)  and I was like YES let's do this!  Finally got around to it tonight.  :)  Here's a pic of the pulp :)

INGREDIENTS

2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup caster sugar
100g white chocolate chips
125g butter, melted (and cooled, but I was too impatient for this)
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly whisked
1/4 cup passion fruit pulp
1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing1 & 1/4 cups icing sugar
2 tsp hot water
1 tablespoon passion fruit pulp 

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 200°C. 
• Lightly grease a 12-hole 1/3-cup capacity muffin pan.
• Combine flour, sugar and chocolate in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. 
• Whisk butter, milk, egg, passion fruit and vanilla in a jug. Pour into well. 
• Gently fold until just combined. 
• Three-quarter fill muffin holes with mixture. 
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Stand in pan for 5 minutes. 
• Turn onto a wire rack. 
• Make passion fruit icing: Stir icing sugar, water and passion fruit in a bowl until smooth. 
• Spoon over muffins, allowing to drizzle down sides. 
• Allow to set. Serve.

Hmmm I'm not sure about these muffins.  They are REALLY sweet with the chocolate AND the icing - the tartness of the passion fruit is kind of lost in the mix.  I'm not the biggest passion fruit fan (when it has pips!) so the crunch was a bit disconcerting.  I mean they were nice enough, but after one, I'm kinda over it, and hoping mum and dad like them enough to eat the rest haha!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1082/passionfruit+and+white+chocolate+muffins

Lemon Blueberry Yoghurt Loaf

I have always been obsessed with lemon cake, lemon syrup cake, lemon yoghurt cake, and all of the above.  I found this recipe totally by accident on pinterest.com and decided to make it because we had lots of blueberries in the freezer, and just that morning I had picked some lemons off our recovering tree (Mum had hacked away so much foliage that it didn't have any fruit for ages, but now it's bouncing back beautifully!).  Plus my cousin was staying so I wanted to make something special and yummy for us to all enjoy.

The hardest part about making this loaf was the waiting.  Waiting for it to cook.  Waiting for it to cool.  Waiting for the syrup to soak in.  Waiting for the glaze to harden.  Meanwhile it smells and looks AMAZING.  And surprisingly, all the baking, syruping and glazing wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be, since I like simple recipes with few steps.  But gosh, this was worth all the steps.  Honestly.

INGREDIENTS
 

For the Loaf:
1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup  yoghurt (plain, or lemon flavoured)

1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 & 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed

For the Lemon Syrup:
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the Lemon Glaze:
1 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
• Line one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with baking paper.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. 
• Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 
• In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour.
• Fold them very gently into the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack, keeping it on the baking paper.

• While the loaf is cooling, make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. 
• Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. 
• Remove from the heat; set aside.
• Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. 
• Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. 
• Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. 
• Let the cake cool completely.

• To make the lemon glaze, in a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. 
• Add up to another tablespoon of lemon juice if the mixture is too stiff. 
• Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. 
• Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes, before serving.

OK, so I know in the past I have gone on about my detestation of lemon zest (see all my lemon poppyseed muffin attempts...) but honestly, I don't think it's as bad as I thought.  I barely noticed it at all in this loafy cake thing.  And WOAH was it amazing.  Seriously.  SO lemony.  I LOVE it.  I'll definitely be making this again.

My family enjoying it!

 

For this one, we didn't have plain yoghurt, but we had lemon flavoured yoghurt, so I used that, and I think it made it just that little bit more lemony.  AMAZING.  And the blueberries were little bombs of juicy flavour, and hand-staining colour.   I recommend eating with a fork.  It's quite a moist loaf too, so eating with hands is almost silly.  And the glaze, once it's dry and hard, makes a sugary lemony crunchy outer layer that is just incredible.  I cannot gush enough about this cake.  OMG.  It hasn't lasted long... 

Recipe Inspiration: http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/05/15/lemon-blueberry-yogurt-loaf/

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownies

In honour of my mum's birthday yesterday, and also because I finally found the recipe I used to use all the time, I made some brownie muffins.  Really, it's just brownies, but instead of a big lump of brownie to be cut up, I make them in muffin tins because it's easier to deal with!  I love having the portion controlled for me in a muffin size! :D  

Argh why is this picture coming out sideways?  Does anyone know how to fix this?  Leave a comment if you do!

I LOVE this recipe, because it's super easy to make, and the brownies are always hugely chocolatey, and dense and moist and *drools* ok, so we get the picture, I love them.  However, they aren't the healthiest, this recipe uses heaps of butter and eggs and sugar, but oh my, it's totally worth it!  And if you wanted to kick it up a notch in the heart-attack stakes, serve it warm, with vanilla ice cream and some chocolate sauce, and you've got an amazing dessert right there!  Seriously, it's like mud cake.  

I can't rave enough about this recipe, you all just have to try it.

INGREDIENTS

250g butter

1 & 1/2 cups castor sugar

1 & 1/4 cups plain flour

1/8 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup good dark cocoa

4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla essence, but this is optional)

chocolate buttons/chips/berries to top

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 180 deg C (fan forced)
• Place butter and sugar in a microwave safe jug, cover and microwave for 3 mins (800 watts).  Sugar should not completely dissolve
• Meanwhile, sift flour, baking powder and cocoa into a large bowl
• Make a well in the centre and add eggs and vanilla
• Pour in the butter mixture and gently mix until well combined, but do not over-mix (lumpy is good!)
• [EDIT] Put into square (or round) flat silicone dish - just found out that it makes them even better than in muffin tin omg.
• Place chocolate buttons/chips/berries on the top of mixture
• Bake for 20ish mins until just firm.  Stab with a toothpick - when it comes out clean, they're ready!
• Allow to cool for 10 mins before removing from the dish

INDULGE.

Seriously my favourite brownie recipe ever.  (Thank you, Tupperware... haha!)

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.