ANZAC biscuits

ANZAC biscuits? What are those? I get asked this whenever I make these. Admittedly, it has been just a little shy of a decade since I last made a batch, but I did used to make them fairly frequently. The story I've been told is that these were the cookies sent over to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the war, as they were simple and travelled well.

They are meant to be brittle, worthy of breaking a tooth, but I prefer them chewy. I messed up and didn't make them that way this time, but if you are in America and can get good coconut, these can be truly divine. They look deceptively boring, just appearing to be a plain oatmeal cookie, but when you bite in you get a hit of coconut and you realise just how more-ish these can be.

Another good thing about them is that you don't use any eggs, so no salmonella worries with the dough. Not that this has ever stopped me from eating raw cookie dough.

Oh, and one last tip: when adding sugar, don't mistake a jar of bulgar wheat for a jar of demerara sugar. Trust me on this.

Ahem.

One other nice thing about this recipe is that everything gets thrown into a bowl and mixed together at once. So here we have brown sugar, flour, baking soda, coconut, oats, and a dollop of golden syrup.

Then on went some melted butter.

Then it was mixed.

Err, it seemed a bit dry. So then I actually looked at the recipe and realized I was meant to add a couple tablespoons of water. That made it better.

Then it was rolled into sizeable balls and put in to bake. I can only really fit two trays in my oven at a time, so I crowded them in closer together than perhaps I should have in order to save time.

They flattened out, and I also realized I had overbaked them. Oops.

Not perfect shapes, to be sure. Nevertheless, I brought them to the playground after school and quickly found myself surrounded by children willing to eat them and thus take them off my hands (and a few parents too, of course).

I might try making them into bars next time, as I think that might help prevent overbaking and would also take less oven space. But here is the recipe for them as out of my Mrs Beeton cookbook (and why these are in a "Mrs Beeton" cookbook when she wrote her recipes prior to the war is a question for the publishers at Marks and Spencer):

Ingredients:

75g rolled oats

100g plain flour

150g sugar (I use brown sugar)

50g coconut

100g melted butter

1Tbsp golden sryup

1 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

2 Tbsp water

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C. Line two baking sheets. 

Combine ingredients and mix well, then roll into balls and place on sheets. Bake for at least 10 min, more if needed but make sure you don't overbake. 

Strawberry Almond Shortbread

The very first time I remember baking something myself from scratch was from a children's cookbook. The cookies were meant to be butter cookies with a jam centre, and I had visions in my head of something like a jammie dodger, or the jam-centred biscuits that always went before any others out of an old fashioned tin of butter cookies. I made sure to get the exact ingredients the recipe required, sending my mother out for "sugar free jam" as the recipe specified (a effort to make the recipe healthier, my mother later explained).

I was thoroughly disappointed with the results. The jam had not magically become taffy-like, the cookies tasted of almond rather than vanilla and were fat rather than elegantly thin. Everyone else liked them, and I made them again, thinking that somehow I had just got the recipe wrong, but I only got the same results. My childhood tastes tended to prefer the machine made, super processed factory cookies to homemade ones it seemed.

When I saw a photo of these cookies here, I was reminded of that recipe, but my adult self thought this type of recipe was worth giving another shot. This time I went in knowing that the jam would retain its general state and that cookies would taste of almonds, ending up crumbly rather than crispy.

The base was a simply shortbread, so I put butter and sugar into the food processor with some almond extract.

And it magically turned it into this in seconds.

Then in went some flour...

And a few seconds later I magically had cookie dough!

I chilled it a little bit, though perhaps not enough given how much some of my cookies flattened out, then rolled it into balls.

And put my big ol' thumbprint in the middle of 'em.

Then on each of them went a dollop of jam. I didn't have any raspberry jam to hand, but Costco strawberry jam did the job nicely.

A few minutes later they came out slightly more disc-like than I had anticipated.

When in doubt, just drizzle on some glaze in a fancy schmantsy kind of way, and you're good to go.

I brought some to a friend, then carried the rest with me to pick up the kids from school. On the way back, we ran into my colleague who was scanning the shelves of our local Sainsbury's for something to put on a plate for guests coming round, so she got the other half of the batch (minus the ones my family consumed). She served them up later, only half pretending they were hers, but was forced to confess when they asked for the recipe!

So here it is, in all its simplicity (originally taken from Better Homes and Gardens, but found on this website):

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup jam
sugar for sprinkling
1 cup powdered sugar
3 to 4 teaspoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1. Mix butter, sugar, and extract together until well blended. Add flour and mix until combined. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/ 180C. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls 2 inches apart on lined cookie sheets. Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each ball. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of the jam into each indentation and then sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cool on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks to finish cooling.

3. For icing, in a medium bowl combine powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon water and 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract. Add enough of the remaining water to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle cookies with icing.

Lime Bars

Well, after the lacklustre "lemon brownies" I decided to go with a more reliable citrus bar. Lidl had a special deal on limes, so I picked up a bag and got out a recipe for lime bars that I had made a while back. 

Lemon bars are not often seen here in Scotland, as much as they are a staple in American cafes, and certainly no one here had ever seen a lime version of these citrus treats. I failed at first when describing it to my colleagues as the laden tin was presented.

"They're lime bars," I said confidently.

"What? Lion bars? What are lion bars?"

"Ha ha, no, not lion bars, LIME bars!"

"Oh. What are lime bars?"

"Um...Kind of a shortbread base with a lime topping. Kind of a gooey topping, sort of a custard but not really. They're crusty on top. Gooey but crusty"

"Uh...thanks..."

"No, really! It's kind of like a lime curd topping! With a shortbread base! They're good!"

"Great."

Of course, ultimately, they were home made goodies so people ate them. And darn it, they liked them too.

And for the record, the last time I made these for a separate group, I was told they were the best dessert bars one person had ever eaten ever and they demanded the recipe. So there. 

Here's the recipe I used here, also copied and pasted below.

Gather Up:Cookie Crust

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 /2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 cups flour
Pinch kosher salt

Lime Topping4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
6 tablespoons flour
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.

To make the crust, combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the flour and the salt, and mix another minute until well combined.

Pat the dough out to an even thickness over the bottom of the pan, and then gently push up and build an edge all around. (This will prevent the filling from seeping down underneath the crust when it is added later.)

Bake the crust for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden. Remove and let cool completely on a rack.

To make the topping, whisk together the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and whisk until just combined. Whisk in the lime juice and the zest.

Pour the lime topping over the cooled crust and return to the 350 degree oven. Bake for an additional 25 minutes until the filling is set.

Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Generously dust with confectioners’ sugar and cut into squares. Bars will keep 2-3 days at room temperature.

Lemon Brownies...that are lemony but not like brownies

I've been on Pinterest again. I was looking to try something new, something different, and I saw a recipe I'd pinned ages ago for some "lemon brownies". Clicking on it, the link was outdated and broken, but I googled a bit more and found a separate recipe.

"These should be great!" I thought. "They'll be chewy and fudgy like a brownie, but with the zest of lemon flavour! Crusty on the outside, chewy in the middle! They'll be heavenly!"

Errrrm...no...they weren't. At least, I don't think so as I didn't technically eat any, but I did poke and prod and sniff them quite a bit. The good news is, my non-discerning family like them. They basically were just heavy, syrupy, slightly rubbery lemon bricks. They were not chewy in the right way. They were not pleasingly crusty. They were not what I would call "lemon brownies". I'm not saying that lemon brownies don't exist somewhere out there in the ether, it's just that this recipe wasn't them.

I didn't melt the butter, I just cut the room temperature butter into the flour and sugar.

And in a separate bowl went eggs, lemon juice and zest. Then they met each other in the big bowl. At first it was ugly.

But then it looked nice and cake battery.

So into the tin it went.

My assistant was given the task of cleaning the bowl.

And the mix came out of the oven looking like this. Not particularly brownie looking - just looked like a normal thin tray bake.

I mixed a glaze in a separate bowl, but it seemed too runny to me

Indeed, when I put it on, it just sat on the top. I had to wait a good few hours for it to set at all.

And when I finally attacked it, it looked like this. 

Errr...not so great. That said, my family has happily demolished them so just not my thing maybe.

I got my recipe here, and have just copied and pasted it below too. But still I wonder...do lemon brownies really exist somewhere???

Ingredients

For the Brownie

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs, large
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the tart lemon glaze

• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 8 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 cup icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish with butter and set aside.
3. Zest and juice two lemons and set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined.
6. Pour it into the flour mixture and beat for 2 mins at medium speed until smooth and creamy.
7. Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 mins, should turn golden around the edges.
8. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will dry.
9. Filter the powdered sugar and whisk with lemon zest and juice.
10. Spread the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula and let glaze set.
11. Cut into bars and serve.

Spinach, Artichoke, and Bacon Quiche

Quiche and I have a bit of a troubled past.

Years ago, when my mother was feeling adventurous in the kitchen she prepared a quiche for our Sunday dinner. As my parents murmured happy noises while they demolished their portions, I stared at mine, willing it to become something non-eggy. My grimaces offended my mother, and she gave me firm instructions just to EAT IT.

Well, being a good girl, I did as I was told, but my stomach had other ideas and my mother lived to regret her instructions to me. For years, it was a running joke, with "mmm..quiche!" being uttered whenever we were in its presence in a cafe, with mocking looks in my direction. Truthfully, I didn't eat it again for at least another ten years.

But then, one day I stepped into a Parisian patisserie and I decided quiche needed another shot. I ordered a simple miniature quiche lorraine and was bowled over by it. My tastebuds had decided to grow up, it seems (though not completely - I still detest eggs cooked on their own).

Fast forward a few years, when I went to Michigan to visit my husband's family. We were served what my aunt-in-law called "spinach pie" but what I would simply call quiche. I loved it, as did my husband, and I immediately asked her for the recipe and have used it repeatedly since when I want a meal that is simple and easy to make in advance then heat up later. It also travels well, so is handy for pot-luck affairs.

I've adapted it a bit over the years, and this time decided to add in a new element I hadn't tried before: artichoke hearts. It was my husband's idea, as we had a jar languishing in the cupboard, and it seemed a good one, bringing to mind the American restaurant starter staple: spinach and artichoke dip.

The filling is easy to prepare: frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed), a handful of artichoke hearts, a chopped onion, a couple tablespoons of flour, lots of swiss cheese (emmental in this case), salt, pepper, nutmeg, milk, and three eggs. I just put them all in a bowl...

Then mixed them into this unappetizing looking combination.

I had Pepperidge farm pre-made pie crust recommended to me, but we have no such thing here, so I just made a simple shortcrust pastry from my Joy of Cooking recipe, using a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. I know vegetable shortening is the new Satan, but it ensures good pastry, so I still use it. I put it into my prized pyrex pie dish - pyrex really is the ideal material for cooking pie crusts.

Because I wasn't baking for any vegetarians, I put some raw smoked bacon bits in the bottom.

Then on went the filling in one big splodge.

And for a nice brown cheesy top, I added some freshly grated parmesan.

The excess pastry was just folded back over and smooshed together.

Then, the better part of an hour later, using the fan setting with the emphasis on the bottom heat to prevent a soggy bottom, out it came in all its golden glory. I did this early on in the day, then reheated it slightly for our dinner, serving it alongside salad (not pictured).

I'm surprised I haven't posted this before - it is easy to throw together and for this reason makes a fairly regular appearance around this house, in spite of my childhood trauma. 

I promise it tastes better than it looks in my rubbish photo here.


Spinach, Artichoke, and Bacon Quiche

1 pie crust (either bought or half of this recipe which, again, I am surprised I haven't posted yet)

8 oz swiss cheese
2 Tbsp plain flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
plenty of pepper and nutmeg
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and liquid squeezed out
1 onion, finely chopped
handful of artichoke hearts
2-3 Tbsp smoked bacon bits
Parmesan cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

1. Prepare pie crust (whether it means making pastry or removing plastic from it)
2. Mix together all ingredients except Parmesan and bacon
3. Scatter bacon bits evenly in bottom of pie crust
4. Dump mixture on top and spread to even it out
5. Top with freshly grated parmesan, as much or as little as you like
6. Put on bottom rack of oven and bake for 50-60 minutes.

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

There are many things I like about not owning a car: the avoided expense (including those unexpected repairs that seem to happen to everyone I know), the people watching on bus journeys, not having to focus on driving while little people scream in the back of the car. When we rent a car for long journeys, it seems expensive at first glance, but you always get a brand new car and again you don't have to worry so much about mileage and strange rattling noises.

The main times when I really wish we did own a car are when my kids get invited to birthday parties. For their younger years we were fine - they were usually very casual affairs somewhere nearby where we could walk to, and parents were always invited to stay (often enjoying the party far more than the children). But now that two of my children are of school age, parties have been amped up a notch. I totally get why - usually you are under pressure to invite a high number of kids, and entertaining a group of primary schoolchildren for two hours is enough to give anyone nightmares. So instead, people usually choose some venue out on an industrial estate where, for a fairly reasonable price, they will promise to look after the little terrors and celebrate a child growing a year older, so long as you bring the cake and party bags (do NOT forget party bags). Parents are only half-heartedly asked to stay, as while there is space for kids, there is not a great deal of room for adults. If there is, it is usually a small waiting room or an isolated corner of a VERY LOUD ROOM.

Now this is fine and great if you have a car. You can usually draw a deal with some other parents where one of you will drop them off and another will pick them up, and having handed the kids over the parent will usually involuntarily begin to grin like a madman at their short period of freedom.

If you don't have a car, this means studying the Lothian Bus website and Google streetview to figure out which buses to take, what the bus stops look like so that you know when to disembark, and what the actual venue looks like so you know where you are heading to and don't walk the wrong way round a building with the same circumference as Lake Erie dragging the child who is invited and two other children who have to come along anyway now matter how much they complain.

This weekend my son has been fortunate enough to be invited to a tubing party. The lucky kid gets to go on the dry ski slope with 10 of his friends and speed down it on an inner tube at the speed of 100 miles an hour, screaming with delight the entire time. The small drawback is that it is two bus rides away, and then one has to trek up a hill to get to the ski centre. I have done it before in good weather, but as I looked at the weather predicted for today it did not look good. My husband had told me he was going to be in Glasgow for the day, and suddenly I pictured myself on the last stretch, buggy-less, dragging up the kids in wind, hail and sleet and I decided this called for desperate measures.

I begged.

To be precise, I sent an email to all the other parents who had kids going and asked if any could transport my child there, explaining our lack of wheels. For the first hour after I sent the email, I confess I cursed them all, wondering why they hadn't dropped everything to tell me they would take my precious child. Then the offers came pouring in, the father of the birthday boy even asking if I'd like them to take my son there and back. I cheered, I wept tears of joy...and I got out my pinterest board of baking ideas.

I couldn't offer to return the favour today, but I could offer baked goods at least to the parents willing to chauffeur my offspring. I decided on this recipe, using lime zest as well as lime juice, but there was one little problem: I'm off sugar. When I am making something, especially when I am making it for the first time, I like to taste it to make sure it is ok before giving it to anybody else. Yes, of course I could cheat and have a bite, but that would just be like sticking dynamite next to a dam...once started I wouldn't be able to start - it's all or nothing, really. So I made a batch and made my kids try them.

"Thumbs up!" my son cried.

"Yes, they're ok," my daughter said.

"Do they taste like lime?" I asked.

"Lime?" they both asked.

"Yes, lime! You know, kind of like lemon?" I demanded.

They both shook their heads no and continued chewing. So I juiced another lime and added icing sugar until it looked like an ok consistency for drizzling over the tops and added it on.

My husband, who had ended up not going out of town in the end (I know my son is totally going to rat me out on this, by the way, so I'll need to explain myself next time I see the parents) came shuffling through at this point and decided to give up his lunchtime fasting.

"I'm not feeling well!" he said as he chewed. "I'll start fasting again tomorrow."

"Are they ok?" I asked.

"Mmm...gorgeous..." he replied, then shuffled back to bed.

"Do you taste the lime?" I shouted after him.

No response.

So I can't fully endorse this recipe, as I've not actually eaten any, but I've sent them off with the parents anyway (though the dad may have been slightly disappointed as they were in a plastic chocolates tub).

But on a positive note, now that I'm in city car club, kids' parties will be more welcome in my life. I didn't have enough courage (or car seats) to do the journey in one today, fearing that my first ever trip in one of their cars would be too stressful to attempt going to this party, but next time, Gadget...next time...

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
zest and juice of 1 lime
½ cup toasted coconut

juice 1 lime, icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180C.

Beat butter and eggs until smooth and fluffy. Then, add in eggs, vanilla, and lime. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, coconut and baking powder.  Carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Drop rounded teaspoon size balls onto parchment paper-covered cookie sheets and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let baked cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and them move to wire cooling racks.

Once cookies have cooled, juice 1 lime then add icing sugar until glaze is consistency you want it. Put it into a ziplock bag, snip off the very end of the corner, and drizzle over cookies.

Panettone in a Bundt

Ah, Lent, that joyous time of year when we willingly go without. My son has given up marshmallows, my husband has given up lunch, and I have given up all processed sugar. You can imagine how cheerful our household is these days.

Oh, and my daughter has given up eating raw tomatoes. Yup, she really knows how to make a sacrifice for Lent.

So it is with somewhat dampened enthusiasm that I find myself baking for work this week. We are having our own little bake off, and the category is "Continental Cakes". While at first I had thought of making a fraisier, I realised that this would be quite a bit of effort for a cake that wouldn't slice well and would need refrigeration. Instead I decided to make a more pannetone type affair, using a bundt tin to give it a pretty shape. Bundt tins are useful like that.

Now if you ask any Italian for their Panettone recipe, they'll laugh and direct you to the nearest reputable bakery. But in my Joy of Cooking, next to the recipe I use as the base dough for my hot cross buns, is a recipe for Panettone, which I followed loosely until the last step where I put it into a bundt tin rather than a tube tin.

I didn't get my camera out until I'd made the sponge starter. Here it is, in all its clingfilmed glory, sitting in the morning sun.

Er, yeah...moving on...

Then while that rose for a while I covered some sultanas with water, brought them to the boil, and drained them. This prevents them from being super dry and stops them from burning...mostly.

While Joy asked for separate additions of chopped candied citron peel and orange peel, all I had at my disposal was chopped mixed peel. So be it. Here you can see my weathered Joy peeking through.

In it went with the soaked sultanas...with the addition of a couple Tablespoons of rum.

And hour or so later, my sponge starter looked like this, al bubbly and happy.

So in a separate bowl I put an egg, some yolks (eek - egg separation anxiety!), sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and clementine zest (I had no oranges).

And some plain flour...which was supposed to be bread flour but I didnae have any in my hoose. Oh, and the sponge starter went in too.

It was gloopy. This is supposed to be kneaded/mixed until smooth.

This was as smooth as I got it before I lost patience and threw in the butter.

Again, this was as smooth as I got it before I lost patience. More would be better and would result in an airier cake.

In went my fruit mixture after I'd drained off most of the booze.

And I mixed it until it looked like so.

I then put it in a buttered bowl. It's supposed to be a smooth ball, but oh well.

Here is one purchase I did manage to remember: cooking spray. These bundt pans are great for pretty cakes, but they are a real pain to grease before use.

Once the dough had risen, I punched it down (or rather, gave it a rough stir with a wooden spoon) then spooned it into the pan to rise

At this point I was running out of time. This was enough rising for me.

But you know what makes everything better?

Yes, that's right: BUTTER. Just a little bit over the top before it went in.

And then a little bit when it came out.

Pretty, ain't she? But not as tall as I'd hoped, so more decoration was required.

A simple glaze from icing sugar and lemon juice squirted out of a ziplock bag and a few sliced almonds later...

Er...um...how about more sugar?

That's better! Good enough for me to bring in. Although the official bake off is tomorrow, it looks as if turnout will be low. I thought it best that people dig in now while the cake is fresh, and simply report back as judges tomorrow. When I made this suggestion, it was happily received.

But how does it taste, you ask? 

I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE I CAN'T HAVE ANY SUGAR, YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!

But here's the recipe which I am too lazy to type up: