Lime slice

3/4c plain flour
1/2tsp baking powder
60g softened butter
1/4c icing sugar
3 eggs
1/2c castor sugar (I used normal sugar)
2tbsp flour
Juice & zest of two limes (I only used juice, because I didn't have actual limes)

-Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Grease or line a 20x20cm baking dish (ideally smaller, I used this size and the base doesnt quite go that far, it cracked)
-Either rub butter into flour or beat well, add baking powder and icing sugar.
-Pat into the tin and bake for 15 mins or until cooked. Let cool.

-Beat eggs and sugar for approx 5-8 mins until pale and creamy and volume has increased (I didn't read this bit, so I did it after I added the flour)
-Add flour and lime juice. I also added vanilla essence as the original recipe called for 'vanilla infused castor sugar')
-Pour over the cooled base and bake for another 18-20 mins. It should be golden and set.


Hmm well my egg/sugar mixture didn't thicken, and it turned out very flat and chewy and a bit bitter! not the worst thing I've ever made though.

Coconut & berry crumble

Ingredients

• 500 g mixed berries
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp berry jam

Crumble

• 1½ cups plain flour, sifted
• 60 g desiccated coconut
• 60 g rolled oats
• 80 g brown sugar
• pinch salt
• 120 g butter, diced into even pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put berries, caster sugar, cinnamon and jam in a saucepan and bring to a simmer for 2 minutes, allowing the flavours to combine and the jam to dissolve. Allow to cool slightly.

Place flour, coconut, oats, brown sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until you have a breadcrumb consistency, or you can do this by hand — mix the dry ingredients together then rub the butter into them.

Tip your fruit mixture into a large, ovenproof dish and top with your crumble, ensuring you get an even covering. Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until the top is golden and you can see the fruit bubbling at the edges. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

YUM! Fruit desserts are growing on me, especially on a winter night. Again, we topped with cream in a can, and I'll certainly be going to bed happy tonight!

Peanut butter cookie dough bites

1 1/4c canned chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2tsp vanilla
1/2 c + 2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4c honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/2c choc chips
pinch of salt

- Preheat oven to 175 deg C
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor (except choc chips) process until smooth
- Add choc chips and stir to combine. Mixture will be thick and sticky
- Roll into balls
- Place on baking paper, bake for about 10 minutes. They don't rise much, and will still be moist after baking.

These are... interesting. This is a recipe I found online and gave to a workmate who is gluten intolerant. She bought some in to work today for morning tea. As far as gluten-free baking goes it's pretty good, the chickpeas aren't noticeable, although you'd swear otherwise ONLY if you already know they're there. I think it's just an interesting texture. I do, however, think they'd be so great to freeze and microwave to soften/heat up whenever you want a sweet treat- we ate ours warm and they were tasty, if a bit oily. I'd definitely recommend these to those who are gluten-intolerant, but not sure that I'd ever make them!

Nutella muffins

140 g./2/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. of vanilla
1-3/4 c. of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
9-12 tsps. of Nutella
ALL INGREDIENTS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

- Preheat the oven to 165 deg C
- Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time.
- Stir in vanilla
- Add sifted dry ingredients
- If it appears lumpy at first, keep beating until smooth. It must be the same consistency as the nutella to allow you to swirl them together
- Full muffin pans about 3/4 full. Add a dollop of nutella and use a toothpick/skewer to swirl together... In my case the nutella was too thick (might recommend melting a little bit first?) so mine have a nutella centre with half a boysenberry in there too because I had some leftover :)
- Bake for 20 mins 

These are awesome! THey were so easy, and I was thrilled to try out my new apron that I bought in Portland, Oregon. Plus it's the first time I've baked in about a month so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yummy cup-cake like muffins with a gooey centre, and some muffins had nutella spilling out the top. Until today I wasn't a fan of nutella but after making these I'm ashamed to say my self-control disappeared and I've been eating teaspoons of it! 

Butter biscuits

Tonight I wanted plain, easy cookies that I could decorate and ice. I must mention, decorating cookies is not my strong point- give me cupcakes any day! But these are a "gift" for a friend tomorrow to brighten her day, even if they aren't super fancy.

Cookies:
150g room temp butter
75c castor sugar
225g plain flour

Cube butter and rub into sugar and flour. Roll into glad wrap, refrigerate for 15 minutes, roll out onto a tray and slice.
Bake at 170deg C for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Let sit before icing

There are a few place I could have gone wrong here.... I "roughly" halved the ingredients, and wasn't too picky about it. I used regular flour instead of castor. I gave up with the refrigerating after 10 minutes, and I have the oven too high. Oh, and I may have overcooked. But even though, these are 100x better than the "sugar cookies" I attempted to bake just before Christmas, these are crispy and tasty and I just ate two of them! (Not the pictures ones, they are the gift).

So honestly, try it. Grab your child, niece, or a friend's kid, and just make some cookies! And have fun with it!

Fruit sponge

2-3 cups sweetened fruit
2 eggs
2 heaped tbsp sugar
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder

Today I did the unthinkable. I did two things I hate. Touched/cut feijoas, and stewed fruit. I did it because there was lots of left over fruit in the lunch room at work, and because I didn't have anything else to do and felt like making Tom some pudding. I cut up 2 pairs and 5 feijoas and used a handful of frozen boysenberries. I put about 3/4c water in the pot with them and 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, and boiled them for 10 minutes.

Then....
- Beat eggs and sugar until thick
- Fold in flour and baking powder
- Bake at 190 deg C for 30 minutes

Easy! I halved the sponge mix, because I intended to make a mini pudding but apparently I used too much fruit so it's poking through the sponge at the top! Tom loved it, and said "If I didn't know you better I'd swear there was feijoas in this" - he was surprised to learn that there was! I had a mouthful of what I hope was boysenberries and some sponge and it was nice :) But no guarantees on quality, Tom isn't picky ;) 

Chocolate Chunk & Berry Cookies

Recipe courtesy of the Australian Womans Weekly Recipe Book, I think... Tom photocopied it from his work. Plagiarism!

125g softened butter

3/4c brown sugar

1 egg

1tsp vanilla

1c plain flour

1/4c self raising flour

1/3c cocoa

1/2tsp baking soda

90g dark chocolate

125g berries

- Preheat oven to 180 deg C

- Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla with an electric mixer until combined.

- Stir in flours, cocoa and soda alternately with chocolate and berries (I used tinned boysenberries)

- Drop tablespoons of mixture onto trays, flatten slightly (about 5cm apart, ideally more as these melt and spread)

- Bake for 15 minutes and let stand for 5 before transferring onto a wire rack.

Verdict: Tom loves them, but he's not picky. personally I think this recipe is better suited for brownie, or muffins. They never crisped up and are extremely moist which I don't like in cookies. Also, learn from my mistake - don't use the electric mixer when you add the berries! We ended up with a hundred undetectable berry fragments, which may have been where I went wrong.

All in all I'll never make this again, unless I make a brownie. However, the mixture was DELICIOUS, light and moussy. Should've just eaten it like that!