The Violet Butterscotch Blondies

The Violet Butterscotch Blondies

11 Jan 2025

Happy New Year and welcome to the first post for 2025. I'm easing myself back slowly into the kitchen after a mammoth 2 months of baking. I decided to make some blondies using a Claire Ptak recipe. The day before I returned to work, I made the caramel shards then quickly but the batter together. By the time the blondies had cooled I'd lost the light so I put them into an airtight container and returned to photograph them a few days later.

They're delicious but even though I reduced the sugar in the recipe, I found them very sweet. To take the sweetness down a notch I've dropped the sugar in the batter even more. I could have taken the caramel a bit further which would have taken the edge off the sweetness and instead of milk chocolate, dark chocolate pieces would also help.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from here, which makes 8 brownies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

The Violet Butterscotch Blondie – Claire Ptak

Caramel shards
15 ml water
75g caster sugar

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the tin
1 egg
125g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
120g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
60g milk chocolate, broken into small pieces

Caramel
Have a sheet of greaseproof paper ready on a heat proof surface. Measure the water into a heavy-bottomed pan. Cover with the sugar and place over a medium-low heat until the sugar starts to dissolve. Resist the temptation to stir the pan as this can cause crystallisation. Once the sugar starts to dissolve, turn up the heat to medium-high until the sugar is a dark golden brown. Pour the caramel onto the greaseproof paper in a thin and even layer. Leave to cool, then use a sharp knife to chop into smallish shards. Be careful, as the caramel can be quite hard.

Blondies
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Butter a 17 x 17 cm baking tin and line with baking paper.

Gently melt the 125g butter in a small, heavy-bottomed pan and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar and vanilla until frothy, then whisk in the melted butter.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl then add add to the egg and butter mixture along with the milk chocolate pieces. Mix until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the top with a palette knife or spatula. Sprinkle 40g of the caramel shards over the top and bake for 30 minutes. The centre should be puffed and set but still a little gooey.

Leave to cool completely in the tin, then cut into 8 thick but smallish pieces.

These will keep well for more than 3 days in an airtight container.

A perfect bite sized treat served with a nice cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking for my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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christmas cookies 2024

christmas cookies 2024

22 Dec 2024

I wasn't planning to post anything today as I'm feeling a bit baked out and ready for a holiday. I managed to find a second wind though and baked some cookies for my neighbours before I leave for my Christmas break.

I was only going to make 3 kinds of biscuits but at the last minute I decided to make a batch of chocolate crinkle cookies. I mostly made cookies I was familiar with but also popped in a new one, a marbled shortbread cookie, to please my fussy next door neighbour, who will not eat fruit. Here's what I made. 

A batch of sour cherry amaretti and you can find the recipe here.

A batch of hazelnut and almond thumbprint cookies which I filled with blood orange marmalade or some berry jam and you can find the recipe here.

I made a batch of my ever popular chocolate crinkle cookies, and here is the recipe for you.

And the final cookies I made were these marbled short bread cookies by Nicola Lamb. They were pretty easy to make but I could have been a bit more adventurous with my marbling. Next time.

Here's the recipe for you which I found here which makes 20 shortbread cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Marbled Shortbread
Ingredients
160g unsalted butter, softened
80g caster sugar
75g fine semolina
170g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
½ tsp sea salt flakes
1 tsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract (or use ½ pod, seeds scraped out)

Method
For the chocolate shortbread, in a mixing bowl, cream 80g butter and 40g caster sugar with an electric whisk for 1 min, until pale. Add 35g fine semolina, 85g plain flour, the cocoa powder, ¼ tsp sea salt flakes and the milk; stir to form a stiff dough.

For the vanilla shortbread, in a separate mixing bowl, use the whisk to cream the remaining 80g butter and 40g caster sugar with the vanilla extract or seeds for 1 min, until pale. Add the remaining 40g fine semolina, 85g plain flour and ¼ tsp sea salt flakes; stir to form a stiff dough.

Tear off a sheet of baking paper. Divide the doughs into small blobs and alternate them on the paper to build a 25 cm x 5 cm log. Gently squish it together, then roll back and forth until smooth. Wrap in the paper and chill for 2 hrs until firm.

Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional. Slice the log into approximately 20 x 1 cm rounds and arrange on a lined large baking tray. Bake for 15-17 mins, until golden at the edges; leave to cool fully on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I'm long overdue a holiday so you won't be seeing me for a few weeks so until then, I wish all my readers the best over the holiday season and a happy new year. 

See you all again on Monday January 13 2025 with some more baking from my kitchen. 

Bye for now, 

Jillian

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xmas week 2024 - sticky gingerbread bundt cake

xmas week 2024 - sticky gingerbread bundt cake

17 Dec 2024

Is it even Christmas if you don't make gingerbread in some form? This year rather than gingerbread men or a gingerbread tree, I made a gingerbread bundt cake, because I really wanted to test out the cake goop I had stored in the fridge.

Gingerbread usually contains some form of sugar syrup that when baked welds the cake firmly to the cake pan. Trust me I know because I've had any number of baking disasters in the past. For the recipe I turned to Belinda Jeffery and a recipe that I found in a Delicious magazine many years ago. It's a triple ginger cake because it contains both ground ginger, fresh ginger as well as crystallised ginger. I'm not a huge fan of molasses so I diluted it's flavour by the addition of some golden syrup to the mix. 

Thankfully the cake goop worked a charm and the cake unmoulded pretty easily however if you're not in the mood for a bundt cake, this makes a 17cm square cake.

Here's the recipe for you which makes either a 5 cup bundt cake or a 17cm square cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make an 8 inch cake, you can find the recipe here.

Sticky Gingerbread Bundt Cake - Belinda Jeffery

Ingredients

150g plain flour, plus extra to dust
Pinch sea salt flakes
scant ½ tsp bicarb of soda

1¼ tsp ground ginger (as fresh as possible)
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground nutmeg
5 small lumps crystallised ginger, chopped, plus extra chopped to serve
85g room temperature unsalted butter

105g brown sugar
105g molasses/treacle or golden syrup
1½ (75g) eggs
2½ tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1¼ tsp finely grated lemon zest
60ml buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon-Butter Glaze
80g icing sugar
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
15 g unsalted butter, melted and warm
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp warm water

To decorate

Crystallised ginger, chopped, to serve

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease and flour a bundt pan then place in the fridge until needed. If using a square tin, grease then line with baking paper.

Sift flour, soda and ground spices into a large bowl. Stir in the crystallised ginger, then set aside. Place butter and brown sugar in another bowl and beat with an electric beater on medium speed for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add molasses/treacle and beat until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition – don’t worry if the batter looks curdled, it will smooth out when you add the flour. Mix in fresh ginger and zest, then gently beat in the flour mixture. Add buttermilk and vanilla and beat on low speed until just combined.

Scrape into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top feels springy and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then carefully loosen around the sides and invert onto the rack to cool completely.

Lemon butter glaze

Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl. Add the melted butter, lemon juice and water and mix with a spoon until smooth and the consistency of  honey. Ice the cake and allow the glaze to set before serving. If liked, you can top the cake with the extra crystallised ginger. 

Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or in the fridge for up to 10 days, if you prefer it stickier.

This is one of those cakes that tastes better as it matures and it's a recipe I will certainly be adding to my repertoire. It was, as Belinda described it, a really good gingerbread.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

xmas week 2024 - raspberry and cranberry curd tart

10 Dec 2024

Welcome to the final day of Xmas week 2024. This was going to be my version of David Tanis's famous cranberry tart, until frozen cranberries disappeared from the freezer section at the supermarket. Undaunted I made a raspberry curd tart to share with you but the filling failed to set. The tart was a photographic disaster but very tasty, so back to the drawing board I went. 

I had 50g of frozen cranberries stashed in my freezer and a pack of frozen raspberries so I made a batch of cranberry raspberry curd. It certainly set better than the raspberry curd did, but I added some cornflour to the curd to ensure the filling set sufficiently when baked so I could cut a clean slice. With only a few cranberries available, I could only make a small amount of curd so I made a very small tart. Please refer to the original recipe for quantities sufficient to make a 10 inch tart. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 16.5 cm x 2.5 cm tart. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Raspberry and cranberry curd tart

Almond shortcrust pastry
¼ cup icing sugar
35g almond meal
200g plain flour
Pinch salt
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water

Cran-raspberry curd
50g frozen cranberries/120g raspberries
90g caster sugar
½ orange peeled (coloured part only) and juiced to yield ¼ cup of juice

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

pinch salt

55g room temperature unsalted butter 

2 tsp cornflour (starch) mixed with 2 tsp orange juice

To serve (optional)

200 mls cream whipped with 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 punnet of raspberries

Pastry
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. 

Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. You’ll only need about half of the pastry dough to make a 16.5cm tart. The pastry freezes well so just wrap the remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.

Refrigerate the pastry for an hour and then roll out thinly - 4mm thick. Line a greased 17 cm flan tin with the pastry then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

To blind bake, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Cover the dough with a piece of aluminium foil (dull side down), tucking it snugly into the corner of the tin. Fill the lined tin with rice or baking beads. Place in the oven, then reduce the heat to 170°C and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5–10 minutes so the base crust is a biscuity brown colour. Cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry and cranberry curd

Put the cranberries, sugar, orange juice and peel in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer for about 7 minutes before adding the raspberries. Cook until the  cranberries have popped and softened, about 10 minutes. Purée the cooked cranberry and orange mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor or blender until smooth then press through a fine-mesh sieve. 

Put the egg and the yolk into a microwave safe bowl and beat lightly. Slowly whisk the warm cranberry liquid into the eggs to temper. Add the salt then cook in the microwave on medium for 5 or 6 minutes stirring thoroughly every minute until thickened and the curd measures 82°C on an instant read thermometer. 

Pass the curd though a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any eggy bits, then whisk the butter into the warm liquid. If using immediately, let cool to room temperature. If working ahead, cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap (press wrap against curd) and refrigerate. 

Just before pouring the curd into the pastry shell, thoroughly stir in the cornflour mixture. This will help the curd to set. Pour the cooled cranberry curd into the prebaked tart shell and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake at 180°C conventional for 20 minutes to set the curd. The curd will look opaque but will not be completely set in the middle. Cool completely on a wire rack then store in an airtight container in the fridge. 

Just before serving dollop whipped cream in the centre of the tart or pipe the whipped cream around the edges and decorate with the fresh raspberries.

Undecorated, the tart will keep for 2 days covered in an airtight container the fridge.

How was it? The tart was absolutely delicious and well worth the hype.

I hope you enjoyed Xmas week 2024. 

See you all again next year.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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white chocolate macadamia and dried pineapple shortbread cookies

white chocolate macadamia and dried pineapple shortbread cookies

9 Dec 2024

Xmas week 2024 is just around the corner. As I'm knee deep in baking and photographing Christmas treats, I needed something quick and easy to put together. As I'm still auditioning this year's Christmas cookie, I thought I'd bake a batch of white chocolate, macadamia and dried pineapple cookies adapted from this recipe by Nagi from Reciptineats.

The cookies are inspired by the famous Byron Bay White Choc Chunk and Macadamia Nut cookies. I had everything I needed to make a batch but I found a few pieces of dried pineapple left in the cupboard, so I chopped them up and added the pineapple to the mix. I made my cookies a little thinner than the recipe, so ended up with 18 cookies.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 18 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies - makes 18
Ingredients
175g butter, unsalted, softened 
70 g brown sugar
70 g caster sugar
pinch salt
2 egg yolks 
2 tsp vanilla extract
225 g plain flour 
75 g rice flour (sub with plain) 
½ tsp baking powder
80g macadamias, roughly chopped 
110g white eating chocolate, chopped into pretty small pieces

6og dried pienapple pieces, coarsely chopped

Method
Beat butter, sugar and salt on medium (speed 5) using a handheld mixer for 1 minute until smooth. Add egg yolks and vanilla, beat for 1 minute or until smooth. Add baking powder, rice flour and half the plain flour. Beat with mixer on medium speed until flour is incorporated.

Add remaining flour and beat with mixer until flour is incorporated. Add macadamia nuts and chocolate, then mix through with a wooden spoon (dough gets a bit too hard to use mixer).

Scrape mixture onto a work surface, press together and shape into a 22cm log. Roll up in baking paper or cling wrap, twist ends then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Slice and bake
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Line 2 trays with baking paper. Remove the log from the fridge, unwrap and slice into 1cm thick slices (18 cookies). Place 9 cookies on each tray, then bake for about 7 minutes. 

Turn the oven down to 170°C conventional, switch the trays between shelves then bake for another 15 minutes, or until just set and golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool cookies on a tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before eating.

Storage - keep in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days. 

I haven't had a Byron Bay cookie for a while so I can't tell you if these copycat cookies were exact replicas, but they were a pretty good cookie.

See you all again next Monday for 5 days of Christmas treats aka, Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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xmas week 2024 - small batch chocolate candy cane cookies

xmas week 2024 - small batch chocolate candy cane cookies

7 Dec 2024

Each Christmas I make batches of cookies to share with friends and neighbours. I don't like to repeat myself, so every year I audition a new cookie recipe. I found this Jessica Brook recipe on instagram and the cookies looked very appetising, so I thought I'd give them a go.

The cookies are an easy to make, mix and melt one bowl affair so they take no time to put together but they do need some chill time. The end result is a deeply dark and chocolately cookie with a brownie texture topped with crunchy pieces of candy cane. 

I've baked with candy canes before and unfortunately they melt when baked, leading to an unattractive looking result. You have 2 options - drizzle the cooled cookie with melted chocolate and press the chopped candy cane pieces into the chocolate or press the candy cane pieces into the partially baked cookies. As the cookie is already chocolate dense, and all the more delicious because of this, I went with the latter option.

Here’s the recipe for you which makes 8 cookies although of course you can double or even treble the recipe if you like. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Small batch chocolate candy cane cookies – makes 8 

Ingredients
1 egg

60g melted, cooled unsalted butter
¼ cup (55g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp caster sugar
½ cup plain flour (75g) 
⅓ cup (55g) Dutch cocoa powder
¼ tsp bicarb soda
60g chopped dark chocolate
Salt flakes to sprinkle
4 candy canes, chopped into 1 cm pieces

Method
Whisk the egg, the cooled butter and the sugars together. Add the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate soda and mix well to combine. Fold through the chocolate pieces and refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes to firm. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper or silicone. 

Scoop the dough into 8 portions and place on the prepared tray alllowing plenty of room to spread. Sprinkle with salt flakes before placing the tray in the oven on the centre rack. Bake for 6 - 7 minutes, then flatten each cookie a little and stud the warm cookie dough with the candy cane pieces. Return to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes - the cookies should still feel soft to the touch.

Remove from the oven, tap the tray to flatten the cookies, and if you like you can ‘scoot’ the cookies with a large round cookie cutter to neaten the edges, then rest for 10 minutes before placing the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remember the candy canes will be hot so take care when doing this. The cookies will keep for up to a week in an airtight container if they last that long! They're really delicious.

See you all again tomorrow with another bake for Xmas week 2024.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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