I couldn’t decide which of these cookie recipes (and one madeleine recipe - more cake really) to post about - so, I chose all three. They were just sitting in my files, staring, mocking, asking to be published. They had all performed so well and each were totally delicious - so choosing was impossible. Alright, and yes - as of late there has been a dry spell of baking, I admit. It is terrible, I actually HAD to make two entire batches of ~gasp~ Betty Crocker Sugar Cookies ... from a mix!! I know - it’s treason. But that’s not all ... I know exactly what you are thinking how could she! and if the 60 premixed cookies with terrible powdered milk and weird dried oil wasn’t enough ... I made 24 banana muffins from the Quaker mix! All I can say is banana-flakes.
I’m ashamed.
That was slightly relieving, baking confessional. But as per usual I have an excuse - 50 kids, snack time, and only a few hours!! What was I to do, and how could I compete with muffins where the instructions consisted of a dozen words, add 1 1/2 cups water, spoon into muffin cups, bake for 20 minutes. Well, what is done is done, and now to move on, let go and go bake something legitimate!
Enough grieving and guilt-ridden excuses, on to the recipes at hand...
So first up - the Alfajores. Yes, they turned out spectacularly! Why? Could be because the recipe was a close to the real thing I could find - or the fact that the dulce de leche was straight from Argentina (an entire 2 kg worth - what lovely friends I have!). What I found really interesting was the cornstarch in the cookies, it gave them a peculiarly interesting flavour and texture and made for a very delicate cookie. Slathered with caramel and dusted with icing sugar they were quite well received!
Next up the least cookie of the bunch, though equally delicious - even more so in my opinion! The chocolate mud cake madeleines, which I used to make a cake with and turned the extra batter into these little bites. They were dense and fudgy - I might add some vanilla for some flavour boost, but really a solid, cake - very spongy and soft, and chocolatey! This recipe comes from a traditional Australian recipe, understandably famous - for obvious reasons!!
And lastly to round out the trio, peanut butter cookies - traditional, but these surprised me - they were a new take on the classic, chewy peanut butter cookies! What I particularly liked about these was their longevity. Usually cookies don’t make it past three days, but for some reason the fam-jam was cookied out and these sat in their container for nearly two entire weeks - craziness, I know - but even after all of that they were chewy and delectable until the last cookie! (ok, I’ll give some credit to the unnaturally high amount of preservatives in the peanut butter - but still, something should be said in their defense of simply being a very clever and tasty cookie). The same peanut butter cookie taste that reminds you of the simpler times, but with the added bonus of the chewiness of a slightly more demanding-high-stress-evolving world, which as it turns out demands an established sense of chewy!
Alfajores
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cups cornstarch
1 Tbsp baking powder
6 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
dulce de leche
Chocolate Mud Cake Madeleines
adapted from Chelsea Sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
250g dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot strong coffee
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 eggs
Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp milk
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
chocolate chips, m&m’s...
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