biscuits – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Posted on November 3, 2018 Posted in Cakes .

Aniseed and Chocolate Biscuit Cake






This recipe is an interesting one, while being so super easy and oh so delicious. The inspiration came from none other than chocolate bullets (chocolate covered licorice).
I was looking for new flavours to pair with chocolate that were a bit unusual but complemented each other and though I could steal the flavour profile of chocolate bullets.
For the cake style and format I took influence from my Ginger and Date Biscuit Cake.
Outcome, a really delightful cake that took a whole of 15 minutes to make and contained only a few ingredients that are supermarket stables.
Cakes don’t get much easier than this!

Ingredients

300ml thickened cream
2 + ½ tbsn icing sugar
1 tsn vanilla essence
10g cocoa powder
1 + 1/3 tbsn white Sambuca
125g chocolate ripple biscuits

Method:

Beat the cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form.
Add the icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa and Sambuca to the cream until combine and firm peaks form.
Spoon a line of the cream mix onto a plate in a line.
Spoon ½ tbsn of cream mix onto a biscuit and sandwich together with another.
Place the biscuits long side up onto the cream.
Continue to spread ½ tbsn cream onto a biscuit and push into the biscuit on the plate, cream side first.
Continue until all the biscuits are used up.
Spread the remaining cream over the outside of the cream biscuit log.
Place cake in the fridge for 6 hours to set.
Dust with cocoa powder and serve.

NOTE: If you dont have Sambuba you can replace with Ouzo instead or any aniseed flavoured liquor.

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Carrot Cake Ice-Cream Biscuits Sandwich

Posted on April 15, 2018 Posted in Biscuits, Ice-cream cake .

Carrot Cake Ice-Cream Biscuits Sandwich

This is a really easy and quick ‘cheats’ version of an addictive carrot ice-cream sandwich.

The ‘cheat’ component coming from the use of store purchased vanilla ice-cream (saving you 45 mins prep + setting time) and using pre-cooked tin carrots (saving you 45 mins of prep + roasting the carrots time).

Now by no means am I saying you cannot make your ice-cream from scratch or roast your carrots from raw, however these days you can buy a premium quality vanilla-ice-cream.

I know canned carrots doesn’t sound very appealing but hear me out, once blitzed with the spices this mix will be so tasty you will want to use it as a dip.

This recipe has 2 parts the ice-cream and the biscuit component but let me tell you this ice-cream is the star. Yes my shortbread biscuits are my tried and quadruple tested biscuits that I use as the base to all my shortbread baking but even still this ice-cream is the hero.

To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of carrots but this ice-cream is a moreish tasting carrot cake treat.

I had high hopes for this recipe and OMG it came through with guns blazing.

Ingredients:

Ice-Cream:

2 x 410g can of cooked carrots
½ tsn ground ginger
½ tsn ground nutmeg
1 tsn ground cinnamon
40g icing sugar
400g vanilla ice-cream

Biscuit:

110g butter, softened
40g custard powder
50g icing sugar
150g flour
½ tsn baking powder
1 tsn ground cinnamon
½ tsn ground ginger
½ tsn ground nutmeg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c degrees and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Take the ice-cream out of the freezer and allow it to soften for 10 minutes.
Place the drained carrots into a food processor and blitz until a puree is formed.
Pass puree through a sieve into a bowl and add the spices and icing sugar. Stir to combine.
Add the ice-cream to the carrot puree mix and beat with a hand whisk until well combined.
Place the ice-cream into the freezer for at least 3 hours to harden.
Meanwhile, place all the biscuit ingredients in a food processor and process until the mix clumps together.
Roll the mix into 12 x 30g balls and place onto the lined tray.
Using a fork push into the center of the ball slightly to form the biscuit shape.
Bake in the oven for 12 minutes or until the biscuits are slightly golden.
Place the biscuits on a cooling tray until cold then in the freezer to chill for 30 mins+.
Take the ice-cream and biscuits out of the freezer.
Sandwich the ice-cream between 2 biscuits using a spoon and remove any excess, place back in the freezer for 20 minute or until ready to serve.


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Ginger and Date Biscuit Cake

Posted on November 25, 2017 Posted in Biscuits, Cakes .

Ginger and Date Biscuit Cake

This recipe is a revised play on an experimental date and ginger cake that I made recently, in which incorporated whole ginger biscuits in the filling. I found that the cake batter was to thin to bake well but not thin enough to soften the biscuits. However the flavor was a winner so I continued to play with different ideas to use the flavors in a successful way.

Think sticky date pudding but as a soft melt in your mouth cake, and not as a pudding.

Ingredients:

80g pitted dried dates
600ml thickened cream
1 tbsn icing sugar
70ml sherry
250g gingersnap biscuits

Method:

Place the dates in a bowl of boiling water for 10 minutes to soak up the liquid.
Remove dates from the water and place in a food processor until the mix resembles a paste, set aside to cool completely.
Use an electric beater to beat the cream until soft peaks form.
Add the icing sugar a beat until firm peaks form.
Set aside 250ml whipped cream for later use.
Stir 20ml of whipped cream with the cooled date mix to loosen the mix.
Gentry fold the date mix through the remaining 330ml of whipped cream.
Spread a little of the date cream mixture along a serving platter in a straight line to hold the base.
Place the sherry in a bowl and drop the biscuits, one at a time in the sherry until they start to absorb the liquid. After placing all the biscuits in you should have no liquid left.
Spread 1 biscuit with the date cream mixture on the top of the biscuit. Using another biscuit sandwich together with the bottom side of the 2nd biscuit touching the date mix so the mix is in the center.
Spread the date cream mixture on the top of the 2nd biscuit and using a 3rd biscuit sandwich together, bottom side to the mix.
Place the biscuit sandwich stack vertically (biscuits on their edge) on the cream you spread on the serving plate to hold it in place.
Continue layering by adding the cream to the front of the last biscuit and sandwich until all biscuits and cream have been used and a log is formed.
Spread the set aside 250ml whipped cream over the outside of the cake to completely cover.
Place in the fridge for 6 hours, or preferably overnight.
When ready to serve remove from the fridge, cut and enjoy.

Note: I also grated over some dark chocolate for decoration.

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Spiked Oat Peanut and Chocolate Cookies

Posted on September 25, 2016 Posted in Biscuits .

Spiked Oat Peanut and Chocolate Cookies

These cookies came from me experimenting with cookie ‘sandwich’ biscuit recipes. I made a few patches of a range of varying flavor combinations where to list a few includes; peanut butter, almond, coconut, lime, butterscotch, caramel, Kahlua, chocolate…and the list goes on. The aim of making all the variations was to (a) have fun playing around with flavor pairings, but ultimately (b) I wanted to make up an epic recipe for a friends birthday to take to her gathering.

The best mix was peanut butter, chocolate and coconut with the addition of Kahlua to enhance and amplify the chocolate flavor, in which that it did!

This recipe you can say is not as out there as others I have made, BUT these cookies are pretty darn amazingly tasty.

Ingredients:

Biscuit:

160g butter
160g sugar
90g peanut butter
45ml Kahlua
150g plain flour
65g desiccated coconut
1/8 tsn salt
105g Oat bran

Filling:

300g dark chocolate
30ml cream
90g peanut butter

Extra:

60g desiccated coconut

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160c degrees and line a 30 x 30cm baking tray with baking paper.
Using electric beaters whisk the soft butter and sugar until creamy.
Add the peanut butter and Kahlua and beat until well combined.
Sift in the flour and add in the coconut, oats and salt. Stir to combine.
Wet hands and roll mix into 15g balls, placing on the tray with 5cm between each ball.
Once all balls are done use the back of a spoon to slightly flatten.
Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes then place on a cooling rack until cooled.
Meanwhile, to make the filling place the chocolate with the cream in a bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals stirring in between until melted and smooth.
Set the chocolate aside in the fridge for 30 mins of until the chocolate is at a spreadable consistency (similar to peanut butter)
Spread each cooled biscuit on the baked side down with the chocolate mix.
On half the biscuits drop a small amount of peanut butter into the center of the biscuit on top of the ganache.
Sandwich the biscuits together.
Roll each of the biscuits on their side into the extra desiccated coconut and roll to cover all the chocolate filling until all biscuits are done.

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Sticky Date and Spiced Banana Cookies

Posted on June 15, 2015 Posted in Biscuits .

Sticky Date and Spiced Banana Cookies

What do you do when you have left over dates and banana? You get your bake on of course! Though this recipe is for biscuits I did have to flip a coin as to if I would create a cake or biscuits.

Two of my signature dishes are my Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce and my Spiced Banana Cake so it only made sense to take the best of both worlds and produce a sticky date and spiced banana biscuit. Why reinvent the wheel as they say…outcome, my new favorite biscuit.

Ingredients:

150g pitted dates
180g butter
150g brown sugar
1 tsn vanilla essence
1 egg
256g plain flour
1 tsn bi-carbonate of soda
2 tsn ground ginger
2 tsn mixed spice
½ tsn ground star anise
1 large banana

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
Boil some water and place into a bowl. Add the dates and allow the dates to plumb up for 10 minutes in the water.
Drain the dates and place into a food processor and process until smooth.
Using electric beaters beat the butter and brown sugar until light and creamy.
Add the vanilla and egg yolk and beat for a further 2 minutes.
Add the flour, bi carb, ginger, mixed spice, star anise and pureed dates to the butter mix.
Beat the mix for 3 minutes until fully combine and creamy.
With wet hands roll the dough into balls of 20g in size.
Once the balls are rolled place them onto the baking trays.
Cut the banana into 5mm round pieces and place in the center of each ball.
Using your hand push the banana into the top, slightly flattening the cookie.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the biscuit is hard on touch.
Leave on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack.

Ingredients

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Popcorn Biscuits

Posted on July 16, 2014 Posted in Biscuits .

So before I go into the next recipe post I wanted to take the time to acknowledge all the amazing people out there that have communicated to me via commenting on my blog.

There have been moments where the beautiful feedback has really been refreshing for me to continue experimenting further to new levels and puts a massive smile on my face.

Therefore as you encourage me I encourage you to continue the beautiful feedback as well as ideas on ingredients you would like me to experiment with.

Generally I focus on an ingredient or 2 that I go crazy coming up with recipes around until I finally construct a gem that is blog-worthy. It’s generally an ingredient that I have not incorporated in cooking before. At the moment is lavender and pomegranate (stay tuned on this – my lavender recipe will wow your socks off). So without futher ado…

Popcorn Biscuits

Popcorn Biscuits recipe

I have been noticing that the supermarket has started to stock salty and sweet popcorn. This got me thinking back to the salty and sweet trend again and how I trial with this again.

Now I have cooked with popcorn before (see my popcorn slice recipe), but not in the sense of highlighting salt and sweet so I decided to use this ingredient and produce a tasty treat. I contemplated a cake but figured the popcorn would disintegrate while in a moist long cooking period (maybe something I can revisit and experiment with at a later date)…

Therefore below is my recipe for the ever so simple and quick Popcorn Biscuits.

250g butter
130g sugar
80g condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 + ½ tsn baking powder
5 cups popped butter flavor popcorn

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 160c and line 3 big baking trays with baking paper.
With electric beaters beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and creamy.
Add the milk and beat for another few minutes until smooth.
Add the flour and baking powder to the mix and stir.
Add the popcorn to the mix, crumbling into small popcorn pieces as you add.
Using hands mix until well combine.
Roll mix into balls with hands to small golf ball sizes (30g in size).
Place balls on the trays and slightly flatten with hands.
Bake for 18 minutes or until golden.
Once cooked place on a rake to cool.

Notes:

If your not a fan of the sweet and salty you can use plain popcorn but you will loose a layer of the biscuit flavor.

Popcorn Biscuits recipe

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Jelly Biscuits

Posted on June 29, 2014 Posted in Biscuits .

Jelly Biscuits

Ever notice how Jelly (Jello in America) has the most amazing flavor variations, from fruits to wine flavors to favorite drinks like Blue Heaven?

We use essence and extract to add flavor to our baking – vanilla, coconut, almond, mint and rosewater to name a few. So if we already add flavors why can’t we have the awesome favourite Jelly flavours in baking? Well there is no reason we can’t.

This then brought me to experiment with my 2 most favorite Jelly flavours – Creamy Soda and Bubblegum. I made a batch of both of these biscuits and they were both so flavorsome and took me back to childhood!

Ingredients:

250g butter
110g sugar
80g condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 + ½ tsn baking powder
100g Jelly powder (flavored gelatin)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 160c and line 3 big baking trays with baking paper.
With electric beaters beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and creamy.
Add the milk and beat for another few minutes until smooth.
Add the flour, baking powder and the jelly powder to the mix and stir.
Mix until well combine.
Roll mix into balls with hands to small golf ball sizes (25g in size).
Place balls on the trays and slightly flatten with hands.
Bake for 16 minutes or until slightly golden.
Once cooked place on a rake to cool.

Notes:

I have decorated by sprinkling pink decorating sugar to give the biscuits a special touch.

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German Spice Biscuits

Posted on February 10, 2014 Posted in Biscuits, German, Traditional .

German Spice Biscuits

I am a big fan of spices and saw a recipe for Chai biscuits that sparked my interest. Following, a traditional German Spice biscuit recipe caught my eye and I noticed the ingredients were pretty much the same. The only difference was the German biscuits used eggs instead of butter and they had 1/2 tsn pepper and nutmeg which the chai biscuits didn’t have. Looking at these 2 recipes I was more drawn to the traditional and more spiced flavoured biscuit.

These biscuits are very very similar in flavour to gingerbread men, they even have the same icing but are easier to make and take much less time.

Ingredients:

2 + ¼ cups plain flour
¼ tsn baking powder
1 tsn ground ginger
½ tsn nutmeg
1 tsn ground cardamom
1 tsn cinnamon
¼ tsn finely ground black pepper
3 eggs
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 + ¼ cups icing sugar

Method:

Preheat an oven to 180c and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Sift flour, baking powder, spices and pepper in a bowl.
Place the eggs (less 1 egg white) and sugar in a bowl and beat until thick and creamy.
Stir in the flour mix until a dough is formed.
Shape the dough into 1 tbsn sized balls (20g) and place on the baking tray. Flatten the top slightly with fingers.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes of until just firm.
Transfer onto a cooling rack.
Lightly beat the egg white and add in enough of the icing sugar to form a smooth icing.
Using a pastry-brush brush the icing over the top and sides of the biscuit until they are thickly coated. Leave them to set.

Notes:

The traditional way of icing these biscuits is pouring the icing over them, however you will find this don’t work and you waste majority of the icing and only get some biscuits covered.
These biscuits are not very extremely sweet, but super tasty. They would not taste as good if they were a sweeter biscuit.

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