It's time for cookies!

 "I love cookies warm!"  exclaimed Herr Scherrer as he excitedly grabs a cookie from the cooling rack.  He never fails to remind me of that when I make cookies at home and I agree with him wholeheartedly.  Cookies are best when they've cooled slightly but not completely.  I wish we could just pop the cookies into a microwave and get the same effect but its just never the same after its completely cooled. 

I was reminded of this again a couple of weekends ago when I made these dark chocolate walnut cookies.  The original recipe called for white chocolates with macadamia but I had none of those available at home.  We were stuck at home for a couple of hours while waiting for the cable company to upgrade our broadband speed - just enough time, though unexpected, for a quick batch of cookies.  We also have super fast internet speed now reaching several hundred mbps .  Thrilling!

Recipe adapted from Australian Women's Weekly's "Biscuits & Slices", makes about 30 cookies.

125g butter, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon grated orange rind

200g firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

225g plain flour

190g dark chocolate bits

50g finely chopped walnuts

Beat butter, essence, rind, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth.  Stir in flour and chocolate bits.  Drop level tablespoons of mixture about 5cm apart onto greased oven trays, top with nuts.  Baked cookies in 180 C preheated oven about 15 minutes or until firm.  Cool on wire racks.

Pumpkin & apple muffin, with raisins & walnuts

Yes, you read the title right! This is one muffin filled with plenty of goodness! Made with pumpkin & apple purees, plus raisins and walnuts to round off the yummy-ness... And, there's no fat used in this recipe. Convinced? I hope so... hahaha...

Following recipe makes 9 medium sized muffins:

Ingredients:

210g plain flour
260 to 280g white sugar (adjust based on personal preference)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon (adjust based on personal preference)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cloves (adjust based on personal preference)
2 eggs
290g pumpkin puree
80g apple puree
40g chopped walnuts
90g raisins

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 C. Grease muffin pans or line with muffin cups. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground cloves together in a bowl. Separately mix the eggs, pumpkin, and apple puree together smooth. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix till just combined. Be careful not to over stir. Stir in carefully the raisins and walnuts. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin pans or cups. Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Guilt-free banana walnut wholewheat muffins

We were having breakfast one morning last week when Herr Scherrer suddenly asked "Hey hun, can you make me some banana muffins?". I was amused by his request as the only other time he's ever asked me to bake something specific were also banana muffins... of all the many things that come out of my kitchen.... =P

Bananas are easily available all year round from most Hong Kong supermarkets. The problem though is getting bananas that are ripe enough, if not you'll end up having to wait a couple of days before being able to bake those muffins. I was lucky that day though, got my ripe bananas on special offer at HK$4 for 6!

Instead of my usual banana muffin recipe, I decided to make a healthy version this time, using milk instead of butter and replacing white flour with wholewheat flour. I had a bag of walnuts at home and decided to throw that in too, modifying a wholewheat banana nut loaf recipe I had from Carole Clements' The Great Big Baking Book into a healthy wholewheat banana walnut muffin recipe. The guilt-free muffins were moist and nutty, not greasy at all due to the omission of butter. I'll recommend it to anyone who is looking for a healthy treat!

Recipe below makes 5 muffins:

Ingredients

- 130g wholewheat flour

- 75g sugar

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 2 ripe bananas

- 60g milk

- 1 egg

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

- 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

- extra walnuts for sprinkling on top

Method

1. Sift flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon together.

2. Add sugar and salt and mix well, then set aside.

3. Smash bananas with a fork into a puree, leaving some bite-size chunks intact.

4. Combine milk, egg and vanilla and add to smashed banana, mix well.

5. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir till just combine, careful not to over mix. Mix in the walnuts towards the end.

6. Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin trays, filling to the top.

7. Sprinkle the extra chopped walnuts on top.

8. Bake in 177 C preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes till a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

9. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Nuts... Noix...

Still on my bread making spree, a few days ago I tried another recipe from the new bread recipe book mentioned in my last post.

Pain aux noix is a french bread. Its typically made with a mix of white and wholegrain flour resulting in a fairly complex texture and flavor. Coarsely chopped walnuts are added to the dough at the end of kneading, hence the name, which literally means "nut bread".

The recipe in the book calls for walnuts but I had half an open pack of pecans so decided to give my pain aux noix a little twist by using pecans instead of walnuts... I'm not sure why walnuts are usually used - perhaps its more flavorful? I'm making a mental note to try it again with walnuts.

Three types of flour - white, wholegrain, rye - was used in this recipe, which I think contributed to a deep flavor in the loaf. The bread goes really well with cheese. I personally found the texture a little heavy than expected, not too sure if it was due to insufficient rising or just the combination of wholewheat and rye flour in the recipe... will try the recipe again soon to find out!