Ultimate Chocolate Biscuits

I've long been on the look out for the ultimate chocolate biscuit recipe--fudgy, chewy, moist and not too over the top. The Woolworths supermarket bakery has these fantastic chocolate biscuits that are like sinking your teeth into chocolate mud cake, and I have always wanted the recipe. I finally found something similar and oh so delicious. It's probably the best home made chocolate biscuit I've ever had the pleasure to devour, along with  another favourite of mine, the Chocolate Crinkle Biscuit. I've adapted the recipe from here, where it has a five out of five star rating and over 250 reviews to back it up. I knew I couldn't go wrong there. It's sort of one of those fail proof recipes I think. It doesn't have any fancy ingredients and it's super quick and easy to make. The hard part is waiting for them to cool on the rack. My little son literally danced on the spot for 10 minutes waiting for them to cool he was so excited, and then announced "These are delicious! thanks babe!" His father has taught him well!

ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE BISCUITS

1 1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp baking soda or bicarb soda
pinch  salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate bits

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, place the butter and the sugar and beat until light and fluffy and well combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the flour, cocoa powder, soda and the salt and mix into the butter mixture with a spoon until incorporated. Fold the chocolate chips through this mixture.
Scoop heaped teaspoons of this mixture onto the prepared trays, spacing them a few inches apart to make room for spreading. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Biscuits will be soft and puffed up, and will flatten on cooling. Cool for 5 minutes on the trays before removing with a spatula and placing on a cooling rack until completely cool.

Makes between 40-50 depending on the size of your scoop!

Lime Cheesecake Ice Cream with Raspberry Swirl

It's a little experiment that turned out oh so right.
This thick, creamy cheese cake ice cream, infused with lime and rippling with raspberry puree, has a lovely biscuit base mimicking the real deal and tastes sublime. It's rich and decadent and smooth, and the flavours of the lime and raspberry together are just meant to be. There's nothing quite like home made!

LIME CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM WITH RASPBERRY SWIRL (Adapted from The Perfect Scoop By David Lebovitz)

1 lime
125ml (1/2 cup) full cream milk
225g cream cheese, room temperature
250g sour cream
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup raspberries
green coloured food dye (optional)
3 scotch finger biscuits, crushed

Finely grate the zest of one lime into a small bowl containing the milk. Stand for half an hour to infuse. Meanwhile, cut the lime in half and juice. With a small spoon, scoop out the green fleshy part of the lime and also add this to the juice.
In a food blender or processor, place the cream cheese, sour cream, salt, vanilla and sugar, as well as the juice and flesh of the lime. Add the milk and zest. Process until well combined, then place in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
Add the food colouring.
Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions until the mixture forms a thick ice cream. While churning, place the crushed biscuits in the base of the container you are using to store the ice cream. Puree the raspberries and set aside. Spread the churned and frozen ice cream over the biscuit layer when removed from the ice cream machine. Swirl the raspberry puree through the ice cream and place in the freezer until firm. Serve with raspberries or more lime zest if desired.

Makes about 700ml

Grilled Smashed Potatoes

I've been making these beauties for a while. They're a nice spin on the more plain "potatoes in their jackets", as my mum used to call them, and take almost as little time. Best of all, you can add whatever delicious toppings you want and get really creative. Chicken parmigiana smashed potatoes? Go for it!

My husband and I are avid potato lovers, so we thoroughly enjoy having these as a side dolloped with sour cream, alongside the fresh greens and meat. It's also a kid friendly and kid approved dinner side, so that is always popular when you have fussy little undeveloped taste buds in the house.  

They bring back childhood memories of camping with the family, wrapping potatoes in aluminium foil and burying them under the coals of the campfire, to later find them cooked--and then we proceeded to lather them in melting butter.

Here I have spun over to Kate's Kitchen for inspiration for the Secret Recipe Club Reveal this month and found Grilled Smashed Potatoes. I've added bacon  and tomato pasta style sauce to the recipe, and I've just sizzled them under the hot grill because unlike Kate, I don't have a grill basket (I'm not even sure what that is). They are delicious! Don't stand for plain-jane jacket potatoes any longer!

GRILLED SMASHED POTATOES (Adapted from Kate's Kitchen)

Washed and brushed potatoes, skins left on
Diced bacon
Tomato Sauce (pasta style)
Basil
Oregano
Parsley
Grated tasty cheese
Sour cream

Boil the potatoes until tender.
While they are cooking, heat up a little oil in a fry pan and cook the bacon until browned.
Remove the cooked potatoes from water and set on some aluminium foil on the grill tray. Set the grill to high to heat. Meanwhile, using a potato masher, gently crush eat potato downwards. (Don't mash it right up, you still want it to basically be in one, crushed piece.) Spread about 1 tablespoon of tomato sauce on each potato. Sprinkle the potatoes with herbs and lastly the grated cheese.
Grill until golden and bubbling, and serve immediately topped with a dollop of sour cream.

Chicken Bacon Meatballs

It's been a pretty strange six months for me. Being pregnant has thrown out my whole cooking roll--my sweet tooth, my insatiable desire to create and taste and share. This could be an explaination for my 18 month old daughter waking up at 2 am and repeatedly crying "Cupcake! Cupcake! Cake!"
Withdrawal symptoms.
Really, all I want to do is sleep, or put my feet up, or shop online for things I'll never use and clothes that will probably never fit me.
Savory food seems more appealing--as does green stuff and everything on the healthier side of life.
Got to get my mojo back.
Last weekend I had a catering job for a cocktail party and made these delicious meatballs. Chicken meatballs, to be precise, and good thing it wasn't my party or I wouldn't have stopped eating them until the plate was clean. They're full of simple goodies like bacon and herbs and smothered in a little tomato paste--and oh--chicken mince now stops my heart. I think I'm in love with it.
I've only worked with chicken mince for one recipe before. It was when I was working as cook at this adorable cafe called the Marmalade Deli. It was a quaint, shabby chic little place  that felt like your own, and we served these amazing Chicken Burgers. I will share the coveted recipe some time soon, as I have some more chicken mince in the freezer to be devoured. In the meantime, here's the recipe for the chicken bacon meatballs, which make a fantastic appetizer for any party or gathering. They were raved about.

CHICKEN BACON MEATBALLS (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

2 slices bread, torn up into small pieces (fresh or stale is fine, should make 1 cup)
1/3 cup milk
2 rashers bacon, very finely diced
1 small red onion, very finely diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
salt and pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
500g chicken mince
2 heaped tbsp tomato paste, divided
1 tbsp dried parsley (or 3 tbsp finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley)
1/2 -3/4 cup dried breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 200C.
In a small bowl, place the shredded bread and milk, and leave it to soak for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the diced bacon, onion and garlic in half of the oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook over a medium heat until the onion is softened. Set aside off the heat.
Drain any excess milk from the bread, squeezing out what you can. Discard the milk.
In a large bowl, place this bread with the bacon mixture, beaten egg, the mince, 1 heaped tablespoon of the tomato paste and the parsley. Combine until thoroughly incorporated. Sprinkle a little of the dried breadcrumbs over the mixture. If the mixture seems too wet to make into balls, add more breadcrumbs. Roll into approximately 50 balls and place on two baking paper lined trays. In a small bowl, combine the last tablespoon of oil with the last tablespoon of tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Brush the tops of each meatball with this paste, and place in the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm.

NOTES: these meatballs freeze well, and are perfect as a prepare ahead appetizer.

Nutella French Rolls with Cinnamon Sugar

It's been a little quiet around here. I'm always suspicious of silence. I find myself floating, floating, feeling relaxed, and then I think "what the heck is happening? It's actually quiet. Something's up!" Well that's the way you have to think when you have kids. You go and check what they're up to and nine out of ten times they're doing something they shouldn't be doing, like stuffing crayons up each other's noses.
It's a crazy time of the year and nothing should be this quiet. So today I am sharing with you a total gem of a recipe. I'm almost loathed to share it. It's sort of one of those wow recipes that requires absolutely no effort or skill in anyway, and has people wondering how you made it. Once the secret is out however it's a no-brainer. It's so easy and so delicious, you wont be able to stop at one. And the sky's the limit when it comes to filling choices. Here we have nutella filled french toast rolls coated in a delicious golden layer of cinnamon sugar. Imagine them oozing with caramel or strawberry jam? Talk about the perfect breakfast in bed!

 NUTELLA FRENCH TOAST ROLLS WITH CINNAMON SUGAR  
(Adapted from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice)

10 slices soft white bread
10 tsp nutella
1 large egg
1 1/2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 heaped tbsp ground cinnamon

Remove the crusts from the slices of bread. Discard the crusts.
Take each piece of bread and roll flat with a rolling pin.Spread each piece of flattened bread with one teaspoon of nutella, in a portion measuring about one inch wide and the length of the bread, one inch from the edge of the bread. Roll the bread up tightly.
In a shallow dish, combine the egg and the milk and whisk to combine the two and break down the egg. In another shallow dish, combine and the sugar and cinnamon.
Heat a little butter (or oil) in a frying pan. Dip each roll briefly in the egg mixture until well coated, and then place in the hot frypan. Lightly fry until golden-brown all over, then roll in the cinnamoned sugar. Serve immediately.

Makes 10

Glazed Raspberry Swirl Scrolls

Oh dear...there is no turning back now.  For one, you've stumbled across this page. For another, if you're anything like me, this is enough to make you baking crazy. I can't stop making bread!
This is a really fun recipe and a total crowd pleaser. Well, I would have been a bit happier if I had taken these easy raspberry scrolls from the oven a little earlier, they would have been less dry, but that was my fault and not the recipe. My house smelled like a bakery and I swooned around in it for several hours and wished it to always smell that good. Where was my husband to see these new found baking skills and smell his house when he should have? At work. And that's where these beauties got shipped off in the morning, after a wee taste test. Okay, I stashed a few away in the freezer, because this recipe's great like that. Got to love things that freeze well! But of course there's nothing quite like a fresh raspberry swirl roll, warm from the oven, drizzled in a little bit of delicious glaze...

GLAZED RASPBERRY SWIRL SCROLLS (Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction)

Dough:
1 cup milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup butter, room tempeature
2 large eggs
pinch salt
4 1/2 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting

Filling:
2 cups frozen raspberries (not thawed)
1/4 cup heaped granulated sugar
1 tsp corn flour

Glaze:
1 cup icing sugar
3 tbsp cream

To make the dough, warm the milk in a bowl in the microwave until lukewarm (about 35C to be precise).
Add the sugar and the yeast and stir to combine. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture has become puffy or foamy.
When the yeast mixture reaches foaminess, add the softened butter, eggs and salt to this mixture. Using a flat bladed knife gradually stir the flour into this mixture until well combined, and it forms a soft dough. Use your hands to combined the dough more thoroughly until it forms a ball.
Turn onto a well floured surface and knead for 10-12 minutes. Lightly grease a glass bowl, and place the dough in a ball shape inside. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.

With baking paper, line a 9x13 inch baking tray, with longer edges on the sides.
With a measuring tape, mark out a 10x 24 inch rectangle on the work bench, and cover this area in flour.
Turn the risen dough onto the floured surface. Evenly roll the dough in this area until it fills the floured space. Trim any uneven edges, so you have straight, even rectangular rolled dough.

In a medium bowl, combine frozen raspberries, sugar and corn flour.
Evenly sprinkle this mixture over the entire surface of the dough until covered. Take the long side of the dough and tightly roll the dough to form a 24 inch log. Cut this log into 16 even portions, about 1.5 inches wide each. Neatly arrange these rolls in the prepared tray, cut side up. Cover the tray with a clean tea towel and place in a warm area for 2 hours until puffy and well risen. (You can also cover the scrolls at this stage and leave them at room temperature overnight, and bake in the morning.)

Half an hour before the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 200C.
When the two hours has passed since covering the cut rolls, bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the berries are bubbling and the dough begins to turn golden.
Remove from the heat and cool for 15 minutes before serving with a drizzling of glaze.

To make the glaze, combine the icing sugar and cream in a small bowl and combine thoroughly, until it forms a smooth paste. You can add more icing sugar to thicken it, or more cream to thin it, depending upon your preferences. Drizzle over your cooked scrolls, and enjoy!

NOTES: Baked and unglazed rolls can be frozen for up to 1 month, and warmed to enjoy later stage.
Makes 16

Foamy Yeast, Mixing dough with knife, and kneaded dough in oiled bowl

Dough risen after two hours and placed on floured surface. Dough being rolled flat. Raspberry mixture being made and spread evenly over dough surface. Dough being rolled with filling inside.

Rolled and filled dough being cut. Portions being arranged on tray. Scrolls during rising, and then when risen enough. Scrolls just out of oven.

Chocolate Custard Strawberry Cream Tart

Here's a really quick and easy dessert if you're in a hurry. I've been testing out all these instant pudding/mousse/jelly products from the stores, because I see so many recipes in America depend on them. While I find the flavour generally lacking in intensity, these sorts of instant mixes can be just perfect and you're time poor and need to whip something up in a flash. And it's always very popular with the kids. I for one would prefer to make my own mousse or custard from scratch, as I find it tastes better and you can up the flavour to your taste-bud's desire. So feel free to replace the store bought filling with your own chocolate custard or chocolate mousse, and then I believe this would really be one delicious dessert. Someone recently commented that every second recipe on here incorporates strawberries...can't you tell I'm addicted?

CHOCOLATE CUSTARD STRAWBERRY CREAM TART (A Lick the Spoon Original)

300g plain chocolate biscuits, crushed
5-6 tbsp butter, melted
1 packet Airoplane Brand Chocolate Wobble (or chocolate pudding or setting custard. Homemade recipe for chocolate custard here)
400g fresh strawberries
1 cup thickened cream, whipped

Combine the crushed biscuits with enough melted butter to get a damp mouldable base mixture. (you may not need all of the melted butter depending how absorbent your biscuits are.) Firmly press this mixture into a paper lined 20cm round spring form tin and up the sides a few inches. Refrigerate.
In a medium bowl, prepare the Airoplane Chocolate jelly mixture according to the directions on the back of the packet. When this mixture is unset at room temperature, remove the tart base from the refrigerator.
Cut the leaves off the strawberries along with a slither of the top of the berries, so that each berry stands flat with the pointed end upwards. Arrange the strawberries on the tart base so that they cover the surface with the ends pointing upwards. Pour the room temperate jelly mixture on top of the berries. Cover with cling-wrap and refrigerate until the chocolate mixture is set, approximately 2-4 hours.
Whip the cream and pipe on the top of the chocolate to decorate. Sprinkle with a little cocoa powder if desired. Serve chilled.

Indian Roti Bread

 You know that feeling, when you start cutting out sugar? It feels like you won't live another day without it, and if you do, you'll be pining for it all of the next day. Well, I haven't been cutting out sugar, but I've been reducing it, and I'm not craving it so much any more. Don't worry, once Easter hits, my body with thaw from this sugar-free stupor and need chocolate again. And all those gooey, gory delightfully chocolate dripping desserts and sweets will be flowing freely again on the blog. But in the mean time, I've been entertaining my more savory side. I don't think I really have a flare for the savories.  When I see my husband in the kitchen cooking up a storm, it makes me feel inadequate when it comes to savories. He has a creative eye for savories and I have a creative eye for sweets I suppose. Here he was the other night cooking up Bajis and Rogan Josh like a pro, and I just knew I had to add my two cents. So I made Roti bread, and it was most satisfying. There are several different types of Indian bread that can be served with curries and the likes--naan bread, roti and chapati. Roti is flatter and less bready than naan bread, and chapati I believe are a flatbread much like roti (I'm not sure what the difference is). What I do know is roti is a lovely in-between sort of bread, and can be used like wraps as well, filled with curry or whatever you may desire.

INDIAN ROTI BREAD (Adapted from Cooking Curries, Murdoch Books)

1 1/2 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp softened ghee or oil (I even used butter)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water

Sift the flour in a large bowl and add the salt. Rub in the ghee or oil with your fingers. Add half of the beaten egg to the bowl, reserving the rest of the egg for later. Add the warm water and mix together with a flat bladed knife, such as a butter knife, until you form a moist dough.
Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until you have a nice soft dough, adding flour as needed to keep from sticking to your work surface.
Form this dough into a smooth ball and brush with oil. Place this dough in the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel for 2 hours to rest.
Lightly flour the work surface again, and turn out the rested dough. Form into a log and divide into 6 even pieces. Roll into even sized balls. Take each ball, and working with a little oil on your hands, hold the dough up and stretch the edges out evenly until a 2mm x 15cm round is formed. Lay on a lightly floured surface and cover with plastic wrap so that it doesn't dry out, and proceed to do the same with the rest of the pieces of dough. 
Heat a large frying pan on high and brush with some oil or ghee. When hot, gently lower one of the stretched rounds onto the fry pan. Brush teh top side with remaining beaten egg. Cook for approximately 1 minute on each side until slightly golden. Transfer to a plate and cover to keep warm, then proceed to cook the other rotis in the same way.

Makes 6