Tag Archives: biscuits

custard biscuits

Posted on by
51

As a kid I was rather attracted to anything with custard in it. My mum’s egg custard using our backyard chook eggs was a firm favourite, along with a coconut custard pie that she would sometimes make. Always offering to ‘wash’ the pot for her, I would scrape out every last tiny spec left on the bottom of the pot. This was the beginnings of building my strong custard foundations.

My sister and I next discovered that custard powder was an easy way to make your own after dinner treat. Just add milk, cook and your away. A lovely bowl of sloppy sweet goodness. (My sister using so much custard powder in there that the spoon would stand straight up in it.)

My grandmother always used to keep ready-made custard in a carton in the fridge, for when ever hungry grand kids came to stay. I’d eat my weight in it for dessert, followed quickly by breakfast over the top of my weetbix, (these sorts of things you can get away with when you bat your eyelashes, and try to look like a hungry waif. Grandma was always keen to feed me up.)

Outside the home, if we ever went to a bakery it would always be a custard tart, or a custard slice (vanilla slice) that I would choose. There was no need to consider anything else as clearly custard reigned supreme in the bakery choices.

These days my custard consuming as been curtailed a little. The palate is a little more picky and the metabolism a little more sluggish than my frantic teenage appetite for all things custard. Although I did recently introduce Little Monkey to a beautifully delicate French patisserie custard slice. He was keen. As he elbowed his way through to the last portion that I had stupidly been slower to eat. Looks like the little fella might be following in similar custardy footprints.

Custard Biscuits

Cream together

200gms softened butter

100gms (1/2 cup) caster sugar

then add

70gms (1/2 cup) custard powder

225gms (1 1/2 cups) plain flour

1 tps vanilla essence

mix together, and shape

I used a piping bag to shape these, or you could easily roll them into balls and squish them down as well. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes, or until a light golden colour.

feeding the troops with Anzac biscuits

Posted on by
33

Monkey Boy has a multicultural day at school this week, which asked everyone to bring in a plate of food from their respective cultures. I needed something quick, easy, nut free and not requiring a whole lot of thought process. Also something I could do the weekend before, so it had to store well.

Anzac Biscuits you didn’t fail me.

Out of my trusty CWA cookbook, the ever present Anzac Biscuit recipe lay proudly on its page. An eggless biscuit (cookie) initially created to send to troops in far off lands during war time. Wives, mothers and daughters made these biscuits for their loved soldiers, using ingredients that they could easily get hold of and could still be eaten after a long transportation time.

Maybe this time I would even follow the whole recipe to the letter. No short cuts and no changes… Imagine that.

On closer inspection of my pantry I discovered I didn’t have some of the ingredients, so would have to adapt. (I clearly wasn’t meant to follow recipes to the letter.)

I think my biscuits were a bit softer and paler due to less bicarb soda and using the self raising flour instead, (if you want them crunchier, just cook them for a touch longer). Still good to eat though, and I didn’t need to put in that much sugar as was originally called for. As the only troops that were going to be eating my ANZAC biscuits were a class full of excitable five year olds.

ANZAC Biscuits

125g melted butter in a bowl

now add

3 tablespoons golden syrup  (*1 tablespoon)

in a little cup

2 tablespoons boiling water

and

1/2 tsp bicarb soda  (*1 tsp)

add the bicarb mixture to the golden syrup mixture, then add

100g (1 cup) rolled oats

90g (1 cup) desiccated coconut

110g (1/2 cup) raw sugar  (*220g sugar)

150g (1 cup) plain flour

(*original recipe amounts)

Roll in to balls and squish down. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Chocolate Cherry Biscuits

Posted on by
25

For Christmas I’m thinking of getting three t’shirts printed. One for Mr Chocolate and two for The Monkeys. What would the T’shirt have on it?…

I Love Biscuits

Seriously, the love those three have for their biscuits is quite strong. A biscuitless household is not very often. This recipe The Monkeys and I whipped up, (as I had seen a ‘Cherry Ripe’ ad, and the chocolate had embedded itself in my mind- who said advertising doesn’t work…sort of.)

With pudgy toes standing on a chair, and sticky fingers eager to help. An egg was cracked, flour was strewn, butter was softened, biscuit dough wedged in to floor boards, chocolate chips were nibbled upon and biscuits were eventually made. Watching both their faces as they tasted and tested, grinning from ear to ear as they discover the wonders of a new biscuit.

Choc Cherry Biscuits

125 grams softened butter

1/2 cup raw sugar

1 beaten egg

1 tps vanilla

3 tbls glace cherries

1/2 cup choc chips

1/2 cup desicated coconut

3/4 cup s/r flour

3/4 cup plain flour

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla together. Add the egg, and mix in. Add rest of ingredients. Mix well. Roll in to balls and slightly flatten. Bake until light golden at 180C.

Passionfruit Shortbread

Posted on by
26

When Mr Chocolate came home with a whole stack of passionfruit, my mind was thinking oh what to make, what to make? As I am pretty much the only one in the household that likes passionfruit, I could do as I pleased with those tarty little treasures that originate from South America. Feeling the pull of the trusty biscuit, Passionfruit Shortbread it was.

I also made some for Monkey Boy’s pre-school fundraiser cake stall. They already had at least 20 people doing cupcakes, so I decided to stand alone with the biscuits. If nobody bought them, I knew Mr Chocolate would…its the kind man he is.

Passionfruit Shortbread

125 gms softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

Cream butter and sugar together, then add

pulp from 3 passionfruit

add flours

1 cup plain flour

2/3 cup s/r flour

Mix together and then place on a lightly floured board, roll with rolling pin until approximately 5mm thick and cut out. Cut out to desired shapes. Bake at 180C until pale golden.

Eat with enthusiasm, or sell them off at the next cake stall.


Accident prone gingerbread men

Posted on by
8

Gingerbread men. I have had the taste for these little fellas all week, and it was about time my fingers walked the talk. Besides there is nothing the monkeys like more, than helping to make biscuits.

We have these funny little gingerbread men cut outs with an arm or leg missing- although the boys just think some one has been tucking into their biscuits.

Biscuits should be their middle names. The hint of a biscuit and the older monkey is clambering all over me to get in on the biscuit action. This is done with shouts of “Glook! Glook!” (what the little monkey calls biscuits) as he shoves them  in as quick as possible, as obviously the quicker he eats them the more he gets (or so he thinks).

This is then followed by their dear father, muttering “I feel like biscuits” as the monkeys go to bed and quiet time ensues. Quiet time except for the persistent grumble of a stomach only hungry for biscuits.

Actually…. Maybe biscuit should be our family name.

Unusual yes.

But fitting….

Gifts

Posted on by
1

Gifts- I love giving presents I really do. But I hate the idea of buying something as its the “right present to give”, give it to the person and then they hate it in turn. No point! So when I give a present I really  try and make some thing or incorporate making something into the gift. So some ideas that I am using lately.

Antique saucer, some great smelling soap and a recycled ribbon- looks good, is practicle and an easy thing to go in an op shop bag if they don’t want the saucer anymore. Do the same things with home made biscuits on the plate instead, and wrap it up in some cellophane tied up top. Looks professional, different, you are also re-using or up-cycling.

For Christmas this year I did the funky opshop one-off plates, made some jam shortbread biscuits and then wrapped it all up with a ribbon, this was then bulked up a bit with a fundraising teatowel from my kids community playgroup. I got a lot of positive feedback from them. Church fetes are also a great source for different plates.