D321: Mmaaaadness!

As well sa the Lemon yellow and black, I also bought Tulip red and Sky blue...

Why? Just in case I felt inclined to do something silly...

You know, like breaking a biscuit recipe into six (100g each for this recipe), colouring them differently, rolling them into 30cm long strips, overlapping them by about a third and rolling them up.  The uuuuusual shenanigans...

It's tricky to get something this layered perfectly flat, and then perfectly round!

Slightly reshaped with my fingers.

Yep, oven still dirty, but bikkies going well.

I used this good old recipe, basing my idea on the pinwheel version.

They turned out quite well and are headed for some short guests via some goodie bags.

Hypnotic yumminess

D157: Chocolate Coffee Cream Fancy Stars

I was looking for a biscuit recipe and found this one, which would use two neglected things: these awesome star bikkie cutters my sister-in-law gave me ages ago, and my beloved coffee syrup.  

Usually, a few teaspoons of the coffee syrup would go nicely in a cold glass of milk mid-afternoon. However, while Bub is still no good with dairy this yummy stuff has been sitting, waiting, in the pantry.

The topping for these is yet to be done.  Shall look forward to seeing how the coffee cream icing turns out too, in case I can find another place for it in the future.

D87: Preparations

I'm having people around for an arvo tea tomorrow so thought I'd take advantage of a spare Saturday to get in a few baked items ahead of time.

First, two-tone brownies. I've made them before, but this one isn't as good I think. The dark choc layer was very stiff and I'm not sure why. I clearly remember it pouring last time, but today it needed pushing. At least the white choc layer won't have sunk into it though.
On the down side, I burned an edge in my effort to ensure the middle was cooked. Note the sunken centre. Humph.

Second, double choc cookies, also a reliable go-to. No messing with the recipe today and they look pretty good.

Two containers filled with cookies :D

Third! Apricot slice from Cookery the Australian Way. It's actually a Lemon slice recipe, and the apple variation asks for a cup of apple purée, so I've drained can of apricot halves meant for pie, and puréed it to bits. Oh so yum.

How will I not eat any when I slice this up?

Perfectly breadcrumbed butter & flour

In other news, I discovered something a little awesome.  I don't love breadcrumbing butter and flour.  I usually start with frozen butter, which is preferable to soft butter when breadcrumbing, but still tricky.  So today I cut it up quite small and nuked it on a defrost for while, hoping to get it at least a little manageable.  Of course I got distracted and over did it, melting most of it.
But! If you chill it, whip it with a fork and chill it some more, it becomes a cold, light cream and oh my goodness just mix it all up with a fork and voila! Perfect! So even, so quick and easy to make into a dough. Deeelighted!
Rather pleased with the even end result too.

I would list my plans for tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to tempt fate.

D81: Okaaaaay...

Peek-a-boo!

I did take a proper break there... But it wasn't a complete desert!

I completed the Peek-a-boo fabric book with top stitching the edges and tacking the spine.

Tacking and top stitching

I tried out blending two recipes together - or at least the flavours of one with the structure of another. It isn't quite right yet - hopefully I'll nut it out this week.

My Caramel Choc Chip Cookies... a work in progress.  More later.

Gluten-free version of my Caramel Choc Chip cookie trials.

And Bub shall be trying a few new flavours too. 
The apple, pear & banana may be used to temper the sourness of the apple, pear & plum puree of the other week.  It's very tasty, however sometimes Bub hits a sour patch (one time she literally smacked the table) which is hilarious but seems a little unfair.
The Peaches puree has white and yellow peach.  I'm a little curious how blending the two will taste. Hopefully yum!

Pear, Apple & Banana at the top, Peaches at the bottom.

AND I painted a cupboard for my in-laws.

D75: Vanille

These are sablés diamant vanille - french shortbread - from The Cook's Book. It's really an excellent cookbook, done by The Weekly-Times, but it's also a bit funny.

Each chapter is written by a different chef, some of which are a bit different, and they aren't really in a particular order - neither alphabetical nor chronological-by-order (as in, the order you might eat them over the day). Some parts are very thorough, like the meat sections with their careful instructions about bones and preparation methods. And then there is a chapter on Foams, and one on Sauces & Dressings, which is different to the Flavourings chapter. Latin America, Mexico, the Middle East, India all get their own chapters, as well as Japan, China, Thailand AND Asia (Asian Noodles & Dumplings, which is different to Pasta & Dumplings). The chefs also pull no punches on ingredients or style. If it needs leaven, chilling twice, acacia honey, a no.9 plain nozzle, Cox's apples, kirsch or mirepoix, they'll say so. Which is kinda cool. I also love the cooking tables of all the different timings for baking, steaming, syrups, etc.

This book was a gift from my sister. I hope it wasn't found in a newsagent, where I would expect to see a Weekly Times cookbook sold, as I imagine it wouldn't get the respect this one deserves. It's really very good.

I've used the ol' burnt orange and cinnamon sugar for the edges. I swear the instructions make bikkies much bigger than the little buttons in their pic (5cm diameter they say. Hmmm.) My father-in-law is unable to have chocolate (tortuous existence) so I try to make sure there's at least one non-chocolate thing should I have done any baking.

I also got a bit of sewing done but I'm not able to share pics just now - hopefully more tomorrow :)

D55: Complete gift bag!

On a chair.

I was right! Following on from yesterday's post, I was spot on with my guess about folding the lining opposite ways to make it match the cover shell.


After this success and a bit of pressing, the rest followed pretty much as I'd hoped and in good time.

The lining & covers sewn together.

The bag turned out and pressed. The tips are open and ready...

...for turning out!

The finished product!

Some of the top stitching.

The only concern I have is that the seams are pressed open (inside the bag walls) and the top stitching doesn't strengthen those joints.  At the moment the top stitching only picks up fabric from its own side of the seam.  If I'd pressed the seam allowances to opposite sides - the lining allowances one way and the cover's the other - the top stitching would've reinforced the seam, too, rather than only decorated.  For next time, that one.


At this point in the day I've also begun some little biscuits. They're a chocolate shortbready thing and require chilling twice.   It also lets you whip the butter before adding the other ingredients - way easier than the usual shortbread method. Luckily, it's a cracking day: sun-soften butter ain't too likely in winter.  Right now, the first chilling is going to be taken up with bub and dinner, but it doesn't really matter when the next parts happen. :)  I'm liking this recipe already.