Baking Day

Now I love baking, so am trying to do it at least once per week. Usually its a Monday job but I have a crazy hectic week this week so decided I would do it today instead.

There are a lot of reasons to bake your own biscuits, cakes and goodies, not only for the enjoyment and stress release (in my case anyway), but also cost (although this is often debated). My biggest reason for choosing homemade baking over store bought it the control of what ingredients are actually going into the baking. With homemade you often miss all the preservatives, and colours etc. that is commonplace in much of the store bought goods. I guess the other reason is that you just can't beat the taste of homemade baking. I think it has something to do with the 'love' that goes into every item.

Today's baking effort was nearly a disaster however as like usual I just rush in without checking I have all ingredients. Today I was missing baking soda for the gingerbread, however a quick google search let me know that you can just substitute for baking powder if necessary. Then I was missing condensed milk, so swapped that for some chocolate chips. Thankfully both came out still tasting delicious.

From Left: Chocolate Coconut Rough Slice, YoYos, and Ginger Bread

Chocolate Coconut Rough Slice

Base:
115g Butter
3/4C Coconut
1/2C Sugar
1C Flour
1 Dessertspoon Cocoa
1tsp Baking Powder

Topping:
50g Butter
1 1/2C Coconut
3 Dessertspoons Condensed Milk (I substituted for approx 1/4C Chocolate Chips)
1 1/2C Icing Sugar
3Tbsp Milk
1 Dessertspoon Cocoa
Vanilla to taste

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 175degC.
Base: Melt butter and cocoa together. Add to dry ingredients and press into a greased/lined tin. Cook for 15-20 minutes.
Topping: Melt butter (I used microwave and included choc chips) and then mix in other ingredients. Add to base while hot and allow to set.

Now I added choc chips instead of the condensed milk and then omitted the cocoa as I realised I didn't have any when I was already halfway through making it. I think it turned out fine :)

Recipe taken from "Is that a piece of Playdough in your Pavlova?" - which is a cookbook put together by Puahue Playcentre as a fundraiser in 2009.


YoYo's

175g butter
50g icing sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
175g flour
50g custard powder

Method:
Cream butter and sugar, add essence, then dry ingredients. Roll into small balls and flatten with a fork. Place on greased trays. Bake 20 minutes at 180deg C. When cold, put together with Butter Filling as follows: Melt 1Tbsp Butter, add 6Tbsp icing sugar and 1Tbsp custard powder. Add cold water drop by drop until it forms desired consistency.

This recipe was adapted from the Edmond's Cookbook.


Gingerbread

125g butter
1C sugar
2Tbsp golden syrup
1C milk
2tsp baking soda (I have run out so just used baking powder)
2C flour
2tsp cinnamon
1tsp ground ginger

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180degC.
Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup together(I use the microwave, but can use saucepan). Mix milk and baking soda together and pour into butter mixture. Add flour, cinnamon and ground ginger and mix well. Bake for about 1hour, insert sharp knife into centre to check if ready (if it comes out clean it is ready).

Recipe taken from "Is that a piece of Playdough in your Pavlova?" - which is a cookbook put together by Puahue Playcentre as a fundraiser in 2009.