Cookie Dough Truffles

Oh. My. Goodness. “To die for!” is how co-worker Yasmin described them. Hubby says they are “da bomb”. The truffles are basically a cookie mixture with sweetened, condensed milk replacing the usual eggs. Balls of the mixture sit in the freezer for three hours or so, until you take them out and dip them in melted chocolate.

You only need to eat one of these at a time. I promise, one is enough! I ate two to make sure. Or was it three? Either way, sugar overload.

Thanks to Alicia for pointing out this recipe!

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Kitchen Sink Cookies
Adapted from recipe by Martha Stewart
Makes about 40

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped dark cooking chocolate
1 cup mini M&Ms

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Line baking sheets with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl with a wooden spoon or hand mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar together until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Stir in vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually stir into butter mixture until well blended. Add oats, M&Ms and chocolate
4. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons trays about 2 inches apart. Press tops down with the bottom of a glass to flatten cookies evenly. Bake until golden, about 16 to 18 minutes. (Mine needed only 9 minutes) Cool on pan for 2 minutes. Remove from pan, and finish cooling completely on wire rack.

Orange and Dark Chocolate Muffins

I love these even though I added too much flour by accident. I love orange M&Ms and Jaffas. And cookies with orange M&Ms and Jaffa cupcakes. The recipe is from a Donna Hay magazine but you can find a version of if on RecipeZaar. The original recipe called for sour cream rather than yoghurt.

 

Vegan Pumpkin Pie Brownie

This one is a big fat fail in my opinion. The pumpkin part didn’t ever set nicely and I didn’t like the flavour of the brownie base. Two taste testers – hubby and co-worker Eve – did like the brownie portion though. I like the idea of pumpkin or sweet potato pie with brownie so I may experiment some with this idea in the future. If you’d like to try out the recipe yourself just google the title and it will pop right up.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

Yesterday was Father’s Day here in the land down under and my dad requested some “nice” cupcakes. I chose to bake peanut butter cupcakes from the  Cupcakes! book I received for Christmas from my mother-in-law. I can’t tell you how these cupcakes taste – I’m recovering from the flu and my sense of taste is still AWOL. Hubby says they are “awesome” and Auntie says they are “divine” so it looks like a thumbs up on these cupcakes. I’m hoping I will be able to taste one soon!

A note about this cookbook – there are very few pictures in it! Seems odd for a cupcake cookbook not to be filled to the brim with cupcakey imagery.

Choc-Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Buttery goodness. Soft. Chocolatey chunks. Or chips, if you prefer. Just out of the oven. More, please?
Find a similar recipe here. My recipe called for self-raising flour and a slightly different method, but I’m sure the result is much the same as the recipe I used. My cookies baked in 8 minutes.

Cinnamon Buns with Chocolate

Two notes:
1. Cold Sydney nights are not condusive to the rising of cinnamon buns. The buns weren’t as good as last time but I will make them again soon.
2. Was out of icing sugar so used chocolate on top of the buns. Missed the icing, but who can complain about chocolate.

Find the recipe here.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is one of the best choc chip cookie recipes I’ve made. Perhaps the best? Sweet but no sickly sweet. Soft but not too crumbly. How many choc chips you add is up to you. I used vegan ingredients, except for the choc chips. I used light soy milk instead of water. About 8 minutes cooking time was good for me, anything less and the sugar is still too gritty. I ate a few to test this theory of course. Take your cookies out of the oven while they are still a little soft as they will firm up as they cool.

Here is an interesting article about sugar in relation to a vegan diet.

Edit: Here’s info relating to sugar in Australia.

From www.vnv.org.au

A word about sugar…
- Refined sugar is avoided by some vegetarians/vegans because a filter bed composed of animal bone char may be used in the refining process. The bone char is prepared by incinerating animal bones at an extremely high temperature. This results in a physical change in the bones’ composition, leaving particles of pure carbon scattered throughout the porous calcium orthophosphate structure. The carbon particles remove colourant molecules from the sugar (by a physical process called “adsorption”) and thereby whiten it. No bone char remains within the
finished sugar product and it is therefore kosher suitable.
- While bone char filters are still used by some major sugar companies around the world, it is our understanding that they are no longer used in Australia. There are currently three sugar refineries in Australia and they have stated:
Sugar Australia Pty Ltd (details correct as at March 2007)
“Sugar Australia refines sugar in Melbourne and Mackay and markets the CSR brand of sugar. Both its refineries DO NOT USE bone char. Instead, the decolourising process uses granular activated carbon (made from coal). The use of bone charcoal in Sugar Australia (formerly CSR) refineries ceased in Australia about 1990. There are refineries in America that still use it, but not in Australia. The Sugar Australia refineries do not use any materials of animal origin in the refining process, so its products are suitable for a vegan diet.”
Bundaberg Sugar Ltd (details correct as at March 2007)
“Bundaberg Sugar has not used bone char in the refining process for many years now.”
Manildra Harwood Sugars
(Manildra Harwood Sugars have not responded to our enquiries.)

 The recipe is from VegWeb.com

 Recipe submitted by Denise (unedited)

Happy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

   
2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp.salt
cinnamon to taste (optional)
vegan chocolate or carob chips – put in as many as you like
1 cup raw sugar (turbinado #1, sucanat works too but sucks up a lot of the moisture)
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water

Directions:

VERY IMPORTANT-make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. It will work if they’re not at room temp but it works MUCH better if they are. Also while your oven is pre-heating put the cookie sheets you are going to use on top of the oven so they get preheated as well.  Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon (if you choose). Add chips. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In a medium size bowl mix vegan sugar and oil. Mix it well.  Add the vanilla and then add the water. Mix it well.  Add the wet to the well in the dry. Mix it well but be careful not to overwork it.  Add more chips if you need to.  Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Put them in the oven.  Bake for 5 minutes and then flip and rotate the sheets.(top to bottom,and 180 degree rotation) Bake another 4 minutes and check them.

The cookies are done when they seem a little bit softer then you want them to be. They will harden up some as they cool. I usually go in two minute increments from here untill they get to where I like them.

Take them out when they are done and move them to wire cooling racks. If they split or come apart when you try to remove them let them sit on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring them to the racks.

These cookies have come a long way, lots of time and tasting spent on getting them to where they are now. Vegans and non vegans LOVE them. In the words of my 6 year old son-Mom, you’re the greatest because you know how to make the best cookies. Enjoy and let me know if you have questions. Sweet travels.

Serves: almost two dozen

Preparation time: 15 mins?-10 to 12 cooking time

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf

This recipe comes from the cookbook of Baked bakery in Brooklyn. I can’t really fault the loaves (the recipe yields two), but I’m not in love. They are nicely spiced, moist and reminiscent of pumpkin pie. Despite the multiple cups of sugar in the recipe the slices weren’t overly sugary. According to the recipe the loaves freeze well so I’ll pop the second loaf in the freezer for a later date.

Edit: I’m enoying the second loaf more than the first! It defrosts perfectly, I’ve been doing a couple of slices at a time in the microwave.

Flourless Chocolate Cakes

Delicious! I spent Sunday arvo working out with Jillian Michaels while these cakes by Donna Hay were in the oven. I ate one warm with low-fat ice cream while reading an article about curves being back in fashion. That’s how I roll.