Sunday Baking - Peanut butter choc chunk cookies - inspired by the ice cream sandwich at Brooklyn bar & restaurant

We had dinner at Brooklyn Bar and eatery - which was AMAZING - but then desert came and we were in HEAVEN - Peanut butter choc chip cookies sandwiched with ice cream and a peanutty caramel sauce. I knew I had to try and make my own...

Ingredients:

115gms butter
70gms white sugar
70gms brown sugar
1 egg
1t Vanilla extract
100gms peanut butter
150gms All purpose flour
1t baking powder
200gms chocolate chopped into chunks

Method:

pre-heat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined. beat in vanilla and peanut butter. Sift flour and baking powder onto butter mixture and stir until mixed through. Mix in chocolate. Drop spoonfuls onto baking-parchment lined trays (the bigger the spoonful the bigger the cookie) and bake until golden and smelling delicious!

This recipe is so easy you cannot go wrong!

I was out for the night with my sister and father for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony with cello solo. What an amazing performance! YouTube it, you may recognize parts if you've ever seen The Witches of Eastwick ;-)

Will you be attempting these cookies? 

They are insanely good.

Yesterday I made a Lemon & White chocolate blondies, I have to share with you all... AMAZING.

Happy Baking

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking - Macarons, those delicious little enigmas. I've got some tips here to demystify their process

Macarons it turns out are not that hard! You just need to follow a few simple methodical steps to achieve a convincingly professional result. I've made this recipe at least 3 times now and always a consistent bake, so feel free to give it a go ♥

Ingredients:

3 Egg whites (always at room temp - never from the fridge)
35gms Caster sugar
Sift together: 200gms Icing sugar +
110gms Ground Almonds
Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Method:

Beat egg whites in a stand mixer until foamy then while beating, gradually add caster sugar until firm peaks form. You're pouring slowly so as to dissolve the sugar. Optional: In a food processor blend your ground almond and icing sugar to a fine powder, almond meal often has bigger chunks of almond in. If you omit this step you may have some chunks of almond.
Fold in your Sifted almond and icing sugar (and food coloring if you like) until combined, about 30 turns. The batter should fall off the spatula in blobs and hold its shape in the bowl for approximately 30 seconds before melting in.
Spoon into a piping bag and pipe out rounds onto parchment/silicone mat lined baking trays and leave out to set - I get my fan out and fan them for half an hour. This stage is important as you want the skin to form on the outside so that when you bake you get the little "foot" along the bottom.
Bake in pre-heated oven at 140 Celsius for approximately* 10-20 minutes rotating the tray halfway through. 

*time really means NOTHING to macarons, what you need is for them to lift off the parchment paper WITHOUT sticking. Depending on your oven (we have a fan forced oven) you're going to want to watch these, they shouldn't brown or color. Do not remove from the oven until they lift off their parchment.

Now to ICE/frost! The best part!

Ganache:


For The Green:
100gms White Chocolate (always eating, never cooking!*)
1/2 Cup Heavy Cream
Zest of half a Lime

For the Pink:
100gms Dark chocolate (eating please)
1/2 cup heavy cream
tablespoon Raspberry Jam

Heat cream until scalding. Pour over chocolate and sit aside for a few minutes. Add flavouring and stir until smooth and shiny. Refrigerate until the consistency you desire then sandwich matched up cookies together.
*To make it stable while melting and so you don't have to temper Cooking chocolate doesn't contain ANY cocoa butter - that special fat that gives chocolate that melty, silky mouth feel without sticking to the roof of your mouth. Cooking chocolate is gross, don't go there

Have you ever made macarons?
Do you have any further tips I may have forgotten?
Happy baking everyone.

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking: Foodgasm Blondies - seriously, stop what youre doing and MAKE THESE NOW! Oreo & Dark Choc chunk White Choc Blondies

LOOK OUT:

Serious foodgasm follows...

Ingredients:

110gms butter melted

100gms White Choc Melted

1 Egg

200gms Icing Sugar

1T vanilla

90 gms All purpose flour

38 gms Cornflour

18 Oreo Cookies cut into large pieces
(the larger the pieces the more "Oreo-ish" your slice)

100 gms Chocolate chopped into chunks

Handful of M&Ms ( I used Pineapple #yum)

Method: 

Melt Butter and White Choc together, cool. Beat egg and vanilla into butter mixture. Stir in flours until JUST combined (don't overmix) Stir in Oreos and Dark choc chunks - there are more goodies than batter - don't worry!

Press into a lined tin and sprinkle over M&Ms. Bake at 170 Celsius for about 30-40 minutes depending on your oven. It is cooked when slightly coloring on top and setting on the edges.

It will still be fudgy on the inside so try not to overbake it (I did ever so slightly and it STILL TASTES AMAZING)

*Drools Obscenely

These blondies are so rich and fudgy and chocolatey,

they may just change your life >:D

I adapted this recipe from Averie Cooks' Original here

because I cannot leave well alone!

Happy Sunday Baking everyone

SERIOUSLY - MAKE THESE!!!

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.

Sunday Baking - Foodgasm Fudge brownie..... COOKIES, for when you want something a little more portable/single serving

These are REDDICK! My BF asked me to make brownies but I am SICK of the same old recipe so thought I would try making a brownie cookie...

then just sort of went mental and threw anything in there.

Result: the most moist, fudgy, chocolatey, gooey, foodgasm cookies you may ever EAT

Big statement but I'm very confident. 

Ingredients:                                                     

175gms Butter                                                    100gms Dark chocolate, melted                  

100gms White caster sugar                               60gms Cocoa Powder

110gms Brown sugar                                         170gms flour

1 egg                                                                    1t Baking Powder

1t Vanilla                                                            120gms dark choc, chopped

Method:

Cream butter and sugars until pale. Beat in egg then vanilla. Stir through melted chocolate. Sift dry ingredients together twice to really incorporate the cocoa powder through the flour. Fold into the butter mixture. Fold through the chopped chocolate.

Drop tablespoons of mixture onto parchment lined baking trays and bake in a preheated oven for 10 mins.  They will be setting up on the outside but still squidgy in the middle - this is good. The cocoa powder helps the cookie bake faster and overbaking will mean a bitter result.
LEAVE them on their trays for half an hour then use a spatula to transfer them to a cooking rack. They are very fragile while fresh and hot but over a few days will crisp up... IF they last that long.

These are SUPER FUDGY on the inside and the chocolate never quite sets... in other words

#FOODGASM

I REALLY hope you guys try this recipe - it really is super yum and not at all sweet.

Happy Sunday baking all

I went shopping yesterday to get an outfit for dinner and clubbing.
Ended up buying a purse, shoes and a necklace... and wore none of it out!
#facepalm.

♥ Paula Shoe Fiend.