Bergamot Melting Moments

I think melting moments (or yo-yos as they are sometimes known) are such a cheery biscuit. They are wholesome and comforting in a tasty and sturdy way, and are something I think adults and kids alike would enjoy. And they are quite simple to make as well. 

You only need four ingredients, and I thought the longest part of the whole recipe was rolling out the dough into balls to form the biscuits - which honestly wasn’t that long, but the rest of the steps are really quite quick. 

My love for bergamot is probably well known by now, and since we have many to use at the moment these melting moments had to be flavoured with bergamot. However you can use whatever citrus you like instead. 

This recipe is slightly adapted from one I created last year for The Healthy Baker, which you can check out if you want a slightly different take on the traditional melting moment.

Bergamot Melting Moments

Ingredients:                                       

300g unsalted butter, softened

120g icing sugar/mixture

Finely grated zest of 1/2 bergamot

450g plain flour

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar/mixture

3 tsp fresh bergamot juice

Finely grated zest of 1/2 bergamot 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and bergamot zest until creamy.

Add the flour to the creamed butter, and mix on low speed until a dough forms. 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each. Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure an even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together. 

Leave the biscuits for half an hour or so for the filling to firm up a bit (you can do this in the fridge in warmer weather). Biscuits will store well in an airtight container for a few days. 

Makes 40-44 individual biscuits and 20-22 sandwiched biscuits. 

Birthday Cake Cookies

After buying the Birthday Cake cookies from Butterboy last year (read more about that here) I have been thinking about how I could recreate them. 

‘Birthday Cake’ is a strange name for a flavour to me as it gives no real indication of what it actually is. I know ‘Birthday Cake’ may mean something to those who’ve grown up in the US, as I think Birthday Cake is considered a type of cake/flavour there. Like a few other flavours that seem to have originated in the US - Red Velvet and Snickerdoodle come to mind - the name of the flavour or type of cake or cookie, doesn’t give me much idea what to expect when I might actually eat one of these things. 

I still remember over ten years ago, being in the US and trying to work out what exactly a Red Velvet cupcake was. Like what does red velvet actually mean? What flavours should I expect to taste when I bite into one? Everyone we asked gave us some iteration of the answer ‘Well you know, it’s just red velvet?!’. To two Australian’s who had never tasted anything red velvet, that was completely no help, as no, we didn’t just know! It wasn’t till we met up with a fellow Aussie that she said she’d seen her flatmate make red velvet cupcakes and she was sure they had chocolate in them. Once we finally tried a red velvet cupcake, we instantly knew it was chocolatey, and I guess heaped with food colouring to make it red! Finally an answer to our question. 

As for ‘Birthday Cake’ flavoured things, sprinkles seem to be a must. And maybe some element that makes the baked good taste like cake, when it’s not actually a cake. I’m not sure if ‘Birthday Cake’ and funfetti cakes are one and the same, or slightly different in some way, maybe it doesn’t really matter. In the end if you add sprinkles to something it’s instantly more fun and birthday-like even if there’s no birthday to celebrate.

For these cookies I have followed closely my inspiration from Butterboy and added malt to the dough. I think this is the ‘cake’ flavour element and it works well. I’ve also used Caramilk baking chips as not only do Butterboy use caramelised white chocolate in their cookie, but Caramilk makes every cookie excellent. You can also use regular white chocolate chips or white or caramelised white chocolate that is roughly chopped. 

Birthday Cake Cookie from Butterboy

Birthday Cake Cookie Cake from Butterboy

Birthday Cake Cookies a.k.a Cookies with Sprinkles, Caramilk and Malt

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

290g self raising flour

2 tbsp malt powder

3.5 tbsp large sprinkles (aka. Jimmies) 

120g Caramilk choc chips or roughly chopped caramelised white chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and three large baking trays with baking paper. 

Melt the butter over low/medium heat, then allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl whisk together the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg.

Then add the flour, malt powder, sprinkles and the Caramilk choc chips, and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.

Place bowl in the fridge to allow the dough to firm up a bit (at least 15 mins).

Roll medium sized balls of the dough (about a generously heaped tablespoon of dough per cookie) and place well spaced out onto the prepared trays.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown, rotate the trays in the oven about halfway to help the cookies bake and brown evenly. 

Allow to cool on their trays or on a wire rack.

Makes about 16 cookies.

Chai Cookies

I was inspired to make these cookies when Gewürzhaus* kindly sent me some of their products last week. I got their Feel Good Hot Chocolate, but since I can’t eat chocolate they generously sent me a couple of their chai products too. Both the Chai Masala and Sugar are caffeine free, if you are making a chai from the powder you add your own tea to the pot. 

I decided to adapt my Grandma’s Gingernut Cookies and make them Chai Cookies using these delicious products. This recipe is quickly turning into a very adaptable favourite, and I can highly recommend making these crunchy chai spiced cookies. I used date syrup/molasses as it goes well with the chai spices, but treacle or golden syrup will work well if you don’t have any. These cookies do taste like chai, but also remind me of gingerbread too. Which is somewhat comforting, especially with a cup of tea (or chai or hot chocolate!). 

Gewürzhaus Masala Chai Sugar, Raj’s Magestic Chai Masala and Feel Good Hot Chocolate

Chai Cookies

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter 

225g caster sugar

2 tbsp date syrup/molasses

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

2 tsp Gewürzhaus Raj’s Magestic Chai Masala (ground)

Gewürzhaus Masada Chai Sugar (coarse), for dipping

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and mix in the sugar, date syrup, vanilla and the egg. 

In a large bowl whisk together the flour and spice mix. 

Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Tip some of the chai sugar into a shallow bowl.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and dip one side into the chai sugar and place on to the prepared trays chai sugar side up. The cookies will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the cookies cook evenly.  

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 30 cookies.

*Products Kindly Gifted by Gewürzhaus. 

Gingernut Cookies

Similar to the Oatmeal Cookies I posted the other day, these Gingernuts are a recipe from my Grandma, and they use self-raising flour which is a massive win at the moment! 

I don’t recall Grandma ever making these, but as soon as I gave one of these biscuits to my Mum, she said ‘Oh yes I remember these, this is Grandma’s recipe isn’t it?’. I found the recipe in a folder of loose handwritten and typed up recipes I collected from my grandparent’s place after Grandma died. There was a drawer in the kitchen that housed all her old cookbooks, notebooks and loose recipes and I carefully went through and filed them in a folder for safekeeping. 

Some of the recipes in the folder are things I will probably never make (like the recipe for Curried Seafood Salad!), but having them and seeing her handwriting is always comforting. Then there are gems like this recipe that I think I will be making many times over, not only at the moment whilst we are in self isolation and need to be reasonable about our plain flour use, but after this madness is over too. 

This recipe is really simple, and there is no need for a stand or hand held mixer. I also found that the dough was really easy to roll into balls, and the cookies baked into very consistent looking circles which was very satisfying. 

My Grandma’s original recipe (as shown below) was mostly in cup measurements, but I have converted it into grams as I find it is easiest to bake that way. I also found I did not get the 48 biscuits as per the original recipe, I got more like 30 biscuits in total. I may have made them a little bigger than Grandma did, but I guess I will never know! 

My Grandma’s Gingernut Biscuit Recipe

Gingernut Cookies

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter

225g caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

3 tsp ground ginger

pinch salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Once melted remove from the heat and add the sugar, golden syrup and the egg and mix well.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, ground ginger and salt. Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix until combined. If the mixture is warm from the melted butter, allow it to cool a little, otherwise continue on.

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the trays. The biscuits will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between each. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. I like the rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the biscuits cook evenly. 

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 30 biscuits/cookies.

Rose Sugar Cookie Hearts

To be honest with you, I am not really ‘into’ Valentines Day. Unfortunately it seems like an over commercialised day, but my distain for Valentines Day doesn’t extend to heart shaped cookies, rose flavoured anything or pink icing. These things can be enjoyed any day of the year, and shared with those you love regardless of what day it is. 

I had the original idea for these about a year ago when I was testing recipes for my Baking with Rose eBook. I had an idea for a heart shaped shortbread with rose icing. As it turns out, the shortbread looked great, but I found they took on the moisture of the icing and went a bit soft. I ended up creating my Rose Cardamom and Pistachio Shortbread (sans any icing), which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. 

View fullsize

Baking with Rose eBook Test Recipe

View fullsize

Rose Cardamom & Pistachio Shortbread

Now a year later, I came back to the heart shaped cookie idea and knew that a sugar cookie was the only way to go. I added crystallised rose nibs (I buy mine here) and a few drops of natural rose extract, however you could definitely leave both of those out if you wanted. 

I used Gewürzhaus rose powder to colour and flavour the icing, however if you can’t get rose powder, just leave it out and add a little pink food colouring. You will still have the rose flavour from the rosewater, and they will still taste great (you may even need a little less rosewater than the recipe says if you aren’t using the rose powder). 

My Baking with Rose eBook is available here if you are interested in more rose recipes.

Gewurzhaus Rose Powder

Rose Sugar Cookie Hearts

Ingredients: 

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

5 drops natural rose extract, optional

15g crystallised rose nibs (or very finely chopped crystallised rose petals)

1 egg, lightly beaten 

400g plain flour 

Ingredients for the Icing: 

230g icing sugar

2 tsp rose powder (I used this one from Gewürzhaus)

2.5-3 tbsp rosewater

Method: 

Line three large baking trays with baking paper.

Place the butter, sugar, vanilla and rose extract if using in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream using the paddle attachment, until just combined. Add the crystallised rose nibs and mix until combined.

Slowly add the beaten egg to the mixture and mix until well combined. 

Add the flour and mix on low until just combined and the mixture forms a dough. 

Bring the dough into ball, remove from the bowl and cover in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30-60 minutes. 

Lightly flour your work surface and tip the dough out onto it. Dust the top with a little more flour as well to prevent the dough sticking to your rolling pin. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until it is about 5 mm thick. 

Use a medium sized heart shaped cookie cutter (approx. 7-7.5cm in width at the widest part) to cut out the cookies, placing on the prepared trays. Bring the dough together and re-roll when necessary to ensure you use all the dough. Place the cookie filled trays into the fridge for another 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. 

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, or until they are lightly golden around the edges. Rotate trays in the oven about half way through to ensure they cook and colour evenly. 

Allow the cookies to cool on their trays. 

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar and rose powder in a medium bowl, then gradually add 2 tbsp of the rosewater to form a smooth thick icing. Add a little more rosewater if the icing is too paste like. The icing needs to be fairly thick so the icing won’t run off the cookies, but not so thick its difficult to spread. 

Using a small palette knife ice half of each heart shaped cookie, and place back on their trays and allow the icing to set for a few hours. I found I had a little icing leftover at the end, but to be honest I’d rather have a little too much than not enough! You could always ice some of the biscuits fully rather than just half if you really wanted to use it all up. 

Allow the icing to set before storing in an airtight container. Will keep for about a week.

Makes about 36 heart shaped cookies.

Reference: ‘Cookies’ by Peggy Porschen (Quadrille Publishing, 2014), p.8. 

Cranberry and Caramilk Cookies

I had the idea for these cookies (or biscuits, I am still feeling conflicted as to which they should be called!), at work one day. A colleague of mine is American and her and another in our team where talking about Thanksgiving foods, as Thanksgiving was the following week. I heard them mention something about cranberry, and for some reason the idea for these biscuits just popped into my head. It probably wasn’t long after I had made my Raspberry and White Chocolate biscuits, on which this recipe is based. Maybe I just had biscuits on the brain. 

While I didn’t get a chance to make my new cookie idea before Thanksgiving, I did ensure I tried them out on Boxing Day. I had kept a bar of Cadbury Caramilk for my next biscuit batch, as while this white chocolate is already caramelised, I thought it would be great used in biscuits where the white chocolate has extra time to further caramelise in the oven. I’m so glad I used it as the Caramilk tastes great in these cookies, and if I can find anymore I will buy some and keep it for my next batch. 

These cookies are also great for this time of year, when we all hopefully have some time to bake, and maybe have some leftover dried fruit from making other Christmas-y things. I love using cranberries, but I’m sure other chopped dried fruit would be great too. 

I hope you are having a lovely festive season, and have a great start to 2020. If you want to keep up with my news and more baking talk, my weekly newsletter will be restarting a couple of weeks into January - to sign up click here. 

Cranberry and Caramilk Cookies

Ingredients: 

250g unsalted butter, softened or margarine (I use Proactiv Buttery)

200g brown sugar

100g white sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

325g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

200g dried cranberries, roughly chopped

180g bar Caramilk (or other white chocolate), chopped

Method: 

Beat the butter or margarine and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until combined. Add the vanilla extract, then the egg yolks mixing until combined. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda, then add to the butter mixture and mix on a low speed until almost combined. Then add the cranberries and chopped Caramilk and mix until combined.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, cover and refrigerate for at least 30-40 minutes (the dough can also be shaped into two logs, covered with plastic wrap or baking paper and frozen at this point too). 

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line 3-4 trays with baking paper. Once the dough has been in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, scoop out heaped tablespoons of the mixture and place on the prepared baking trays (leaving room for the biscuits to spread as they cook).

Bake for about 18 minutes (rotating trays halfway). The biscuits will be golden once done.

Allow to cool on their trays.

Store in an airtight container, they will keep for about 1 week.

Makes about 55 biscuits.

Reference: ‘The Violet Bakery Cookbook’ by Claire Ptak (Ten Speed Press, 2015), pp.140-1.