Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I have become somewhat addicted to pinterest lately. I mean, what’s not to love about endless photos of cakes and food and other fancy things? In my pinterest adventures I’ve been looking for fun and interesting things to bake and generally end up on another baking blog. I’m not really sure of the baking blog etiquette for sharing recipes, but I found this recipe here. The coconut butter intrigued me as I’d never used it before, and I had difficulty finding it at a supermarket here. But the end result was worth the searching! Also this recipe seems to make heaps of normal sized cookies, way more than the ANZAC cookie recipe I posted previously.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup coconut oil (measured solid)
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups shredded coconut
2/3 cup chocolate chips

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Melt coconut oil until liquid.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil and both sugars. Let sit for 15 minutes.

4. Stir in egg, egg yolk and extracts, mixing until completely smooth.

5. Add in 1/2 cup of the flour, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring to bring it together.

6. Finally, fold in coconut and chocolate chips.

7. Take about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball then place on a baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the mixture, placing cookies about 2 cm apart.

8. Bake for 7-8 minutes, or until just set. Let cool on tray before removing.

No butter, just chocolate chunks, coconut flakes and chewy goodness!

ANZAC Cookies

In honour of ANZAC day today I decided to make some ANZAC cookies, one of my favourite biscuits. The story goes that the wives of soldiers made these cookies and sent them over to their husbands during World War I as they didn't spoil easily and transported well. Unlike other cookie recipes there are no eggs which make them last longer. However if you enjoy a sweet, chewy, delicious cookie these won’t last long anywhere! There is some debate as to whether they should be soft and chewy or hard and crunchy, and after much deliberation, I’m on the soft and chewy side of things!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup plain flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup coconut

125g butter

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 tablespoon water

½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 175°Celsius.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl, then add the sugar, rolled oats and coconut.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Once melted add the golden syrup and water.

4. Once combined remove from heat and add bicarbonate of soda to the butter mixture.

5. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together.

6. Roll walnut-sized balls of mixture and place on a cookie tray spaces about 2 cm apart.

7. Place tray in oven and bake until golden, for about 7 to 10 minutes.

8. Once cooked remove from oven and let cool on the tray before moving them as they will be quite soft.

These are super easy and quick to make, and they are a million times better than store bought ones!

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Chocolate. Vanilla. Raspberry. Cheesecake. Brownie. Swirl. Need I say more? I’m not really sure if the name accurately describes this tasty treat, but the picture of these in the cookbook looked so good I had to try making them! The recipe is from the delicious. magazine cookbook called Sweet. This is not the only scrumptious looking recipe in the book however. I inherited it from a previous housemate who thought I was just a little absurd for making a colour coded excel spreadsheet of all the recipes in this book that I wanted to make. How could I pick just one! I haven’t yet completed the entire list, but I have made most of the recipes in the chocolate section!

I also purchased a new rectangular pie tin this weekend which I wanted to test out. So although the recipe says to use a brownie tin, the photos show my fancy new tin. I would suggest sticking to the brownie tin recommendation as a fair chunk of the mixture spilled over the edges of the pie tin. Still tasted fine, but couldn’t really be classified as a slice.

INGREDIENTS

200g dark chocolate, chopped

200g butter, softened

400g caster sugar, sifted

5 eggs

110g (3/4 cup) plain flour, sifted

400g cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g punnet raspberries (or 125g frozen raspberries if fresh ones cost too much)

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 170°Celsius. Grease and line a rectangular brownie tin.

2. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, then set aside to cool.

    

3. Beat butter and 250g of the caster sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale.

4. Add 3 eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, until combined.

5. Stir in the melted chocolate.

6. Fold in the flour.

7. Spread three-quarters of the mixture into the prepared tin. Keep the other quarter of the mixture in a bowl to be used later.

8. In a separate bowl with the electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth and the same consistency. Add all of the remaining sugar and beat until creamy.

9. Add the remaining 2 eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

10. Spread cream cheese mixture over the chocolate base in the tin.

11. Spoon on the reserved chocolate mixture in blobs and swirl the 2 mixtures together with a knife. Be careful not to over-swirl.

12. Scatter the raspberries over the top of the mixture and press them down slightly.

13. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes until it looks less wobbly.

14. Remove from oven and cool in tin, then remove and cut into squares.

This was a pretty fun recipe to make, layering the chocolate base and then the cheesecake topping and swirling it all around. Takes a bit longer than a regular brownie or cake, having to make two separate mixtures but I think worth the effort in the end! Now I have to go lie down from all the sugar...