Colourful Cookies

Cookbook Adventure #7 - "Cakes and Cookies"

Yes another repeat cookbook! But this time at the request of my eldest child who wanted to take these cookies to school for birthday treats for the whole class. 

They were so popular that we did another batch for my second child's birthday treats for her class too!

A great way to occupy the kids for an afternoon and to let their creative talents loose.

Here's the very easy Thermotalk version of the recipe:

Ingredients
200g butter, roughly cut into 1-2cm cubes

200g raw sugar

2 eggs

450g plain flour

approximately 200g icing sugar for icing

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.

If you don't already have icing sugar, place 200g white sugar in TM bowl and mill to icing sugar for 15 seconds on speed 9. Set aside.

Place raw sugar into TM bowl. Mill to caster sugar for 3 seconds on speed 9.

Add butter to the TM bowl. Cream for about 3 minutes on speed 4 until pale and creamy. You may have to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Add eggs one at a time with the Thermomix running on speed 4, until combined.

Add plain flour. Knead for 1 minute on interval speed or until dough comes together.

Remove the dough, wrap in plastic or your Thermomat, and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface until 5mm thick and cut out your cookies. Place on a greased baking tray or one lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on wire racks.

Golden brown and great with a cuppa!

To make a water icing: add enough water to the icing sugar to make a thick smooth paste and add food colouring if desired.

Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy one (or two) of the cookies  whilst the kids go wild with the decorating!

Batch #1

Batch #2

Serving size tips: This recipe makes approximately 40 medium sized cookies and countless small cookies.  The recipe can be halved (we used half the recipe for batch #2 and still ended up with 80 mini cookies!)

Cookies & Cream Cheesecake

 Cookbook Adventure #4 - "Cook"

This book by the Australian Women's Weekly is the fattest (in more ways than one!) recipe book in my collection and claims to be a book about "how to cook absolutely everything"!  

I came across this cheesecake recipe (p614) and knew it was perfect for the Thermomix.  I set a new record for myself and used the Thermomix no less than 5 times for this adventure but never washed it until the very end!

You can find the original recipe reproduced on the following websites:
http://ironchefshellie.blogspot.com/2008/07/as-promised-recipe-for-crowd-favourite.html
http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dia/recipeID/2796/Recipe.cfm

And here it is in Thermotalk:

Ingredients
250g plain chocolate biscuits
150g butter (next time I would try reducing this to 120g)
2 teaspoons gelatine
60g hot water
360g packaged cream cheese
300g thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g caster sugar (optional)
180g white chocolate
150g cream filled chocolate biscuits
50g dark eating chocolate

Method
Line base of 23cm springform tin with baking paper (or if you want individual cheesecakes,  insert muffin liners into a muffin pan - makes approximately 18).
Place plain chocolate biscuits into TM bowl. Crush for 3 seconds on speed 7. Add butter and mix for another 3 seconds on speed 7 or until mixture is combined and comes together.   Press biscuit mixture evenly over base and 3cm up side of tin (with the individual cheesecakes I just pressed the mixture into the base of the muffin liners). Place in fridge.
Place cream filled chocolate biscuits into TM bowl. Chop for 3 seconds on speed 5. Remove from bowl and set aside.
Place lid on TM. Put small bowl on top of lid and measure out the water. Sprinkle gelatine on top of hot water and stir to dissolve. Set aside.
Place white chocolate into TM bowl. Grate for 20 seconds on speed 8. Add 100g of the thickened cream. Cook for 2 minutes at 50C on speed 5. Use spatula to help scrape out mixture into a bowl. Set aside.
Place cream cheese, remaining thickened cream, vanilla essence, (caster sugar, if using) into TM bowl. Beat for 30 seconds on speed 5. Keep TM running on speed 5 and add the white chocolate mixture and also the gelatine mixture until all combined.
Add crushed cream filled biscuits and mix on reverse speed 1 with the aid of the spatula until combined.
Pour cheesecake mixture over biscuit mixture. Refrigerate for about 3 hours or until set.
Drizzle with dark chocolate* or sprinkle with shaved dark chocolate to serve.

*To melt dark chocolate, place chocolate in TM bowl. Grate for 20 seconds on speed 8. Cook for 1 minute at 50C on speed 5. Place the melted chocolate in a small plastic bag and snip off a corner, then squeeze to drizzle the chocolate evenly over the cheesecake.

Oat Crunch Cookies

Cookbook Adventure #2 - "Cakes and Cookies"