Double chocolate yo-yo's

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a super duper awesome long weekend (if you're not in Oz, we had our queens birthday long weekend so we got Monday off from work woohoo!)

On Saturday, after i did an hr bootcamp, and a cardiobox class at the gym, i came home to cook brunch for my boyfriend, and then had the whole afternoon to myself. I was stumped at what to do.. It had been a really long time since i had no plans on a saturday! So i went through my CRAVE cookbook and noticed i had bookmarked this recipe, so i gave it a go! Little did i know, i'd be finished 3 hours later..!

Some tips!

1) the mixture, is quite dry and stuff, after you mix the wet with the dry. So using your hands (after you use the spatula) try and pat together everything,. I tried to roll it together like dough- there was too much- so i gave up.

2) before you roll the teaspoon full balls - give it a bit of a massage first, get it all together, because if you just start rolling it first - the mixture will crumble when you try to flatten it with a fork

as you can see above, there are two different textures of balls. on the left, a more smooth ball (these ones i massaged with my palm and fingers) and on the right are the less smooth rolls (these are the ones i tried to roll first before massaging)

tray # 1

you can see they cracked! i assumed the mixture was too dry, so i ended up adding a couple table spoons of milk into the mixture, but it didnt change anything.

tray # 2

slightly better looking!

tray #3

perfecto!

The chocolate buttercream was just amazing! the use of real dark chocolate in both the biscuit mixture and the buttercream, just made it taste so nice! I was in a creative mood so i ended up wrapping them in clear cellophane with some fancy ribbon work :O)

Everyone who tried them liked these biscuits, im so glad, as alot of time and effort went into them!

Double chocolate yo-yo's

makes 36 double biscuits

250g unsalted butter, room temp

1/2 cup cnfectioners sugar, sifted

125g dar chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

3 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cornflour (or cornstarch)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

choclate butter icing

90g unsalted butter, room temperature

125g (1 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted

35g dark chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

preheat the oven to 170C. Line baking tray with baking paper

using an electric mixer, cream butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy, then add cooled tepid melted chcolate.

sift flour and custard powder or cornflour and add to the creamed mixture. work the mixture using a rubber spatula to form a stiff dough, adding vanilla extract halfway through

rol teaspoons of mixture into balls and place on prepared tray, use back of fork dipped in flour to flattern each ball.

bake 20-25 minutes, depending on the size of the biscuits. to ceck if they are cooked, use a spatula to lift a biscuit off the tray, and if its evenly coloured undeneath with no uncooked dough visible in the centre, then it is cooked. allow biscuits to cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

chocolate butter icing

using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale and fliffy, add icing sugar gradually. add cooled melted chocolate and vanilla extract and beat thoroughly until combined.

join the biscuits together in pairs with the chocolate butter cream, allow to set, store in airtight container.

Melting Moments

I found this recipe here, and bookmarked it, and set a reminder on my phone to bake bake bakE! I figured i couldnt go wrong with these crumbly morsels, but i have had my fair share of wrecked cookie batches due to a) crap oven or b) unreliable recipes.

Melting moments:

250g butter, cubed
55 g (1/3 cup) icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence
260g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour
50g (1/3 cup) cornflour

filling
60g (3 tbs) butter, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla essence
pink food colouring
110g (2/3 cup) icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

2. Use electric beaters to beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence in a medium bowl until pale and creamy.

3. Sift the flour and cornflour together into a bowl and add to the butter mixture. Beat on lowest possible speed until just combined and a soft dough forms.

4. Lightly flour your hands and roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into small balls. Place on the prepared baking tray about 5cm apart (note – these expand in the oven!). Use a fork that has been dipped in flour to flatten each ball to about 3cm in diameter and 1cm thick (mine were a bit larger).

5. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Cool on the baking tray. Transfer to a wire rack and repeat with the remaining mixture.

6. To make the filling, use electric beaters to beat the butter, vanilla essence in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar and beat until combined, then add colouring until desired colour you want. Cover and place in fridge until required.

7. To assemble the biscuits, spread the base of a biscuit with filling and then join with another biscuit. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and filling.

Chocolate Pinwheels

I've been wondering whether or not i should post this recipe & photo up - as you can see they didn't turn out very well :(

The reasons why i decided to go with posting this up - is to maybe warn others about this type of recipe, mistakes i made, things i could of done better.

One thing i know that could be improved - is the rolling of the dough. Both layers should be separately refrigerated before rolling up (as this makes both layers more firm and less likely to collapse when you're rolling). And also refrigeration time extended to two hours or more (it depends on the day if its hot or cold but usually the colder the dough is the easier it is to roll and cut up.

Nevertheless, these biscuits were made for my workmate over the christmas break as his parents were visiting from India (and they had seen most of my baking goodies via webcamming on the internets) so i thought they might like to try some while they were here.

Chocolate Pinwheels

125 g butter

2/3 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 place butter sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until creamy. add egg and beat until well combined.

2 divide mixture into two equal portions. sift 1 cup flour into one portion and mix to combine. sift together cocoa powder and remaining flour and mix into the other portion

3 roll out each portion between two sheets of grease proof paper to form a 20 x 30cm rectangle. Remove top sheet of paper from each and invet one onto the other. roll up from longer edge to form a long roll. wrap plastic in cling wrap and refridgerate for 1 hour

4 cut roll into 5mm slices, place on baking paper on trays and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. cool on wire racks

*these are ideal last minute biscuits as the dough can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator until needed

White chocolate chip cookies

Found this recipe in the sunday mag of the sun-herald newspaper. Original recipe called for dar chocolate chips, but i had white in the pantry :)

I actually made them so big that i could only fit four on one baking tray (i made two batches, so eight cookies all up) they were massive! & they werent too crunchy, i actually prefer my cookies soft & chewy (subway styles!)

It was fun making these, i think i'll make some more this weekend hehe..

You will need:
180g unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
150g white chocolate chips (or roughly chopped from a bar)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Place butter, sugar & vanilla in a bowl & beat with an electric mixer until pale & creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well

Add the flour & baking powder and beat until a smooth dough forms.

Fold through the chocolate.

Roll two tablespoons of dough into balls, place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper & press to flatten.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are golden.

Cool on trays (do NOT try to remove, they can crumble!)