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!)

Doughnut Muffins

I read about these yummalicious muffins on my daily Foodbuzz email (http://www.foodbuzz.com/top9) and I couldn't wait to make these. Just like Doughnut Holes but no deep frying involved!  Here's the website I got the recipe from  http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/3128726-doughnut-muffins and here it is in Thermotalk:

Ingredients

For the muffins:

140g unsalted butter (chopped into 2cm cubes)

200g sugar (I used 110g)

2 large eggs, at room temperature

190g milk 

30g buttermilk 

360g plain flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

For the cinnamon-sugar coating:

200g sugar

1.5 Tbsp ground cinnamon

110 to 140g unsalted butter, melted

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C.  Grease 3 mini muffins tins (I just sprayed it with a Canola Oil spray).

Put butterfly into TM bowl.  Add butter and sugar.  Mix (cream) on speed 4 for 30 seconds or until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides if necessary during the "creaming" process. 

With TM on speed 4 add eggs one at a time until just combined.

Remove butterfly.

Add milk, buttermilk, flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and bicarb soda. Using spatula to assist, mix on speed 2 for 10 seconds or until just combined. Do not over mix- the batter will be heavy, it's ok.

Fill the prepared muffin tins about 3/4 full with batter.  

Bake until lightly golden and firm to the touch, 15-20 minutes.  Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the tins and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The "bare" muffins

To coat the muffins:  Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Roll each muffin in the melted butter, making sure to coat the entire surface. The place in the sugar/cinnamon bowl and roll around to coat well.  This can also be done in a resealable plastic bag.  

Little hands at work

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Leftover tip: If 36 muffins is too much to eat at one go, just freeze them uncoated. When needed, remove from freezer and leave them on the bench top to come back to room temperature and then coat in the butter and sugar/cinnamon mix.  Tastes just like freshly baked!