AWW! Cookbooks and Peanut Butter Crinkles

Hello, lucky ducks! Do I have a deal for you! It’s another 2-in-1 blog post.

Thanks to AWW Cookbooks (via ACP Books) for sending me 3 new Australian Women’s Weekly books to review. I am an absolute cookbook fiend, so I was very interested in having a sticky-beak at these. And, as with all AWW cakes, the recipes have been triple-tested, so you know they are reliable.

 

The Bumper Book of Kids’ Birthday Cakes is a compilation of favourites from previous books, and it includes some new ideas, as well. You will probably see your own childhood favourites here (eeek! There’s that Dolly Varden cake with the doll stuck in the middle of it with a pouffy marshmallow dress!).

While some of the cake designs are probably a little ‘homely’ or not that sophisticated, it does make them more accessible and achievable. 

There is also an excellent step-by-step section, showing basics such as how to cover a cake board, preparing the cake for decoration and how to cut fondant icing. There are some basic cake recipes included, too.  All in all, this is a great book if you have children or lots of birthday parties to cater for.

Cake Pops contains dozens of designs of cake balls on sticks. There are some very pretty ideas for engagement parties or weddings (the Turkish Delight Bouquets [seen on the cover] are covered in tiny sugar flowers, squeee!), while the Holidays section of the book has ice cream pops and cake pops in the shape of snowmen and Christmas trees. Lovely photographs in this book.

I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty with some of the goodies from this book, so stay tuned.

I’ve left the best till last.

The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits is one of my all-time favourite books. I have been making biscuits and cookies from this book for years, and it has all the classics, such as Anzac biscuits, shortbread, meringues and chocolate crackles.

This is a reissue of the original book (first published 1982) and you can tell it’s from the 20^th century because there’s not much in the way of food styling in the photos, except for maybe a silver service tea-set in the background. It doesn’t matter, though, because the recipes are the stars.

Here, I’ve made some Peanut Butter Crinkles from the book. They are peanutty and melt-in-the-mouth, and so retro, and… just Beautiful Biscuits!

I was focusing on the front biscuit and failed to notice a hovering Tabitha cat.

Peanut Butter Crinkles

makes about 40

Ingredients

125g butter, softened to room temperature

½ tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup peanut butter

1¼ cups plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line baking trays with baking paper.

2. Place the butter, vanilla, caster sugar, brown sugar and peanut butter in a bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat the mixture until smooth and creamy.

3. Sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

4. Roll teaspoons of the dough into small balls, and place onto prepared trays. Leave about 4cm/1½ inches between each ball, to allow room to spread. Use a fork to flatten each ball in a criss-cross pattern.

5. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until lightly golden. Leave on tray for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Biscuits can be stored for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Recipe adapted from Australian Women's Weekly The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits (ACP Books)

Ingredients, including brown sugar, caster sugar, plain flour, vanilla extract, peanut butter, baking soda and butter

Roll the dough into small balls, then flatten and make a cross pattern on them with a fork

Really beautiful biscuits, truly melt-in-the-mouth

Morning tea with Appliances Online plus Monday Morning Cooking Club plus Recipe!

If I ever needed a reason to praise this blogging caper, this would be it.

I was kindly invited by Carla  and Annabelle from Appliances Online to attend a pre-Mother’s Day morning tea and cooking demo at Appliances Online headquarters, with food by the Monday Morning Cooking Club.

MMCC is a group of ladies who have compiled a book of recipes and anecdotes inspired by their Jewish community. They have tested all the recipes and the lucky attendees of the morning tea got to watch them prepare some sweet treats. And sample them, too, of course.

Here are 3 members of MMCC: Lisa, Natanya and Merelyn demonstrate how to make almond kifli. To mix the pastry, they are using the Breville All-in-One as a sort of mini food processor.

These ladies are passionate about their food culture, honouring the traditional recipes and passing the knowledge on to their families, and now, us. I enjoy watching recipes being demonstrated, you get to pick up tips and stuff that you don’t always get from a cookbook.

Some of the beautiful morning tea: on a sunny balcony at the Appliances Online offices, we admired and ate gravalax and mini bagels, with a moreish egg and onion spread.

And chiffon cake. More on that later…

These are the 3 dishes made during the demo: light and crisp honey macadamia wafers, almond kifli, and kindlech, made from super-thin sour cream pastry rolled with Nutella, raspberry jam and sultanas. Kindlech is my new favourite pastry!

This is one of the 3 chiffon cakes they brought (orange, custard and chocolate versions). Gosh, these were as light as air and definitely well worth the effort needed to make them (I say ‘definitely’ because I will ‘definitely’ never be able to make one myself).

After enjoying the sunshine and the gorgeous food, we were presented with a copy of the Monday Morning Cooking Club book, and… a Breville All-in-One!  

Thanks to the following for a wonderful morning:

Appliances Online: The place for whitegoods and home appliances. Most recently, I bought a washer/dryer and microwave from them. Can recommend them for great prices and service.

Breville: Love the new All-in-One. Lots of power but compact, it also has its own stand for its attachments and is ideal when you don’t want to drag out your big food processor. And a great gift for Mother's Day...

Monday Morning Cooking Club: The MMCC cookbook is simply fab. So many dishes I want to make from it. Let’s start with something tasty….

Armed with a super-duper appliance and tried-and-true recipes, I decided to make peri-peri chicken livers with gnocchi. The ‘gnocchi’ recipe is actually for pelushki in the cookbook, but I omitted the usual onions that go in the dish and turned them into gnocchi.

Ingredients for the peri-peri sauce: peri-peri powder, paprika, chilli flakes, red wine, tomato sauce, onion. Peri-peri powder is a mix of cumin, turmeric, paprika, chilli, mustard, ginger, etc.

The sauce is simmered together, then the browned chicken livers are added.

Making the gnocchi (aka pelushki): mashed potato, flour and egg are rolled out and cut into small pillows. They do fluff up quite a bit when cooked, so make them smaller if you like.
And the brilliant Breville All-in-One even has a mashing attachment with THREE texture variations (finest setting was used for this mash)

The sauce and livers were amazing - sweet and rich. The perfect accompaniment to the light and soft gnocchi.