Milk & Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

I was in desperate need of comfort food after the week I had. I'm a stress eater, it is not a good thing. This time I couldn't decide between chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. So I decided that I deserved to have both! In one neat little calorie-laden package. I'm sure this idea has probably been done many times before in many different ways, but I really wanted to bake these. Chocolate chip cupcakes filled with (eggless) chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with milk icing (sweetened condensed milk icing to be exact, my favourite!) and tiny little milk bottle lollies and mini chocolate chips on top.

I couldn't resist topping them with the miniature milk and cookies. It's so damn cute! I have always had a love of miniature versions of food, whether it was mini food toys when I was young or miniature food jewellery during my teens. I still have many, many cupcake necklaces lying around. Also a waffle necklace (it smelt like maple syrup), pancake stack necklace, pie necklace, multiple doughnut earrings, chocolate covered banana slice ring, a giant mint chocolate chip ice cream scoop ring and other assorted rainbow sprinkle covered accessories that I searched high and low to find before Etsy came along. Now I'm feeling guilty because I haven't worn any of it in years, I'm totes wearing my waffle necklace tomorrow. Anyway, my point is that I love miniature food and I think it makes these cupcakes super cute. And everyone loves milk and cookies, they are meant to be together. Which reminds me, how amazing is this milk & cookies bar that I saw on Pinterest?! What the heck, I wish I could have come up with something that perfect.

These cupcakes are an adaptation of my usual foolproof cupcakes with chocolate chips, which I hollowed out the centre of and filled with cookie dough. The cookie dough filling is exactly how you want it to be, buttery, chewy and with no eggs so there's less to freak out about. To be honest you could skip the chocolate chips in the cupcake batter since there's plenty in the cookie dough filling but I like the idea of the whole cake tasting like the cookie while the icing tastes like the milk. And this icing is soooo sooooooooooooooooooooo good. I've been going on about the magic of sweetened condensed milk icing for years and I'm not going to stop anytime soon. It's very sweet and very naughty but it's so fluffy and so good with anything chocolate flavoured. If you're really worried about all the elements being too sweet together, just replace the unsalted butter with salted butter in the recipe, or add a little salt to taste. It was just the right amount of sweet for me and my cravings.

Milk & Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

(makes 12-15 cupcakes, cookie dough filling recipe from Annie's Eats)

For the cupcakes:
125g (1 stick plus about 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
155g (3/4 cup) sugar
2 eggs
225g (about 1 + 3/4 cups) self-raising flour + 1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: 1/2-2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (or finely chopped chocolate)

For the cookie dough filling:

55 g (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp (about 135g) all-purpose flour
1/2 can (200g/7 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (or finely chopped chocolate)

For the icing:

350g (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chopped into cubes

400g (about 3 1/4 cups) icing/confectioner's sugar, sifted

1/2 can (200g/7 oz) sweetened condensed milk

To decorate: milk bottle candies, mini chocolate chip cookies

Prepare the cookie dough filling. If you want to bake the dough into the actual cupcake batter, then you will need to freeze it the night before. If you are like me and just want to hollow out your cooked cupcakes and fill them with the cookie dough filling then it only needs to be done right before baking. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy. Add flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and beat again until combined. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Wrap mixture in cling film and refrigerate until it firms up a bit.

Make the chocolate chip cupcakes; Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place sugar and butter in a food processor and pulse until smooth, then add milk, eggs, flour, salt and vanilla and pulse until just smooth. (If you don't have a processor, cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer at high speed, beat in eggs one at a time and then fold juice, flour, salt into the mixture until smooth.) Stir chocolate chips into the mixture with a spatula and then spoon into a 12-hole cupcake tray lined with papers. (If you are baking frozen cookie dough into the batter, fill cases less so you end up with about 15 cupcakes and place a 2 tbsp ball of frozen cookie dough into the centre of each, I did not do it this way so no guarantees it will turn out the same!) Bake for about 20 minutes or until cupcakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in tin for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

If you didn't bake the dough into the cakes, hollow out the centre of each cupcake using a small knife, then fill each centre with about 2 tbsp of the prepared cookie dough filling. Prepare the icing; remove the butter from the fridge about 30 mins before starting. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy, then reduce speed and gradually add icing sugar. Beat again on high until well combined. Add condensed milk and beat on high until fluffy. Place in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round tip and pipe swirls on top of cupcakes. Use a spoon that you have heated under hot water to flatten the centre of each icing swirl. Decorate top of cupcake with milk bottle candies and mini choc chip cookies. Can be served immediately or stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days. Remove from the fridge 30 mins before serving.

Fudge Brownie & Cookie Dough Cake

Let me introduce you to Calorie Mountain. It may leave you feeling slightly queasy if you try to conquer it. Last week was Regex Man's birthday. His birthday has been the inspiration for many epic cakes on this blog including the mint chocolate chip cake and the fruit tingle cake. This time I went a leeeeetle beeeet overboard. Regex Man's favourite Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavour is Half Baked, so I decided to do a Half Baked flavour inspired cake; (brace yourself) Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake layered with Cookie Dough Buttercream and topped with Fudge Brownies. It's ridiculously rich and completely over the top, but hey we live in a world of bacon ice cream and deep fried Coke.

Trust me, you want to have very small slices of this cake at a time. It's incredibly sweet and rich, but I tried to reduce the sugar where I could and used salted butter to try and balance it out. But even then with all the sugar and chocolate it's incredibly decadent. Only someone with superhuman cake-eating abilities like Regex Man would get a cake like this.

The cookie dough buttercream is SO good, it's the same one from Annie's Eats that I used in these macarons, it tastes just like cookie dough. I went a little crazy with the amount of mini chocolate chips that I mixed into the icing, so feel free to adjust the amount of chocolate chips that you use in it. The brownies are super easy to make and they have that crisp outer layer and dense, fudgey innards that you want from a brownie. The cake recipe is a very reliable marble cake recipe which uses buttermilk, which ensures that it stays soft and doesn't dry out at all.

It might be a while before you see the next recipe post from me after this week, as I'm taking a much-needed break for my Chinese wedding and honeymoon. But don't despair, I'm not abandoning my blog, not for a single week! I have several exciting posts lined up, including some fabulous guest bloggers who were lovely enough to come up with some amazing recipes to share on this blog. For the meantime, enjoy this crazy cake and by the time I come back I hope to be invigorated and ready to jump back into the kitchen.

'Half Baked' Fudge Brownie & Cookie Dough Cake

(Adapted from this cake, buttercream from Annie's Eats, brownies from Taste)

For the cake:

115g (1 stick) butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing

300g (1 3/4 cups) cake flour (not self-rising, I used 270g plain flour + 30g (3 1/2 tbsp) cornflour/cornstarch as per these instructions)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

225g (1 cup) sugar (I used caster sugar)

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp boiling water

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp Dutch-process cocoa powder

For the buttercream:

250g (about 2 1/4 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 1/2 cups (about 315g) icing/confectioners' sugar, sifted

2/3 cup (about 85g) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

200g (about 1 cup) mini chocolate chips or finely chopped pieces of milk chocolate

For the brownies:

200g (7oz) good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

200g (1.75 sticks) butter, chopped

3 eggs at room temp

2 egg yolks at room temp

200g (about 1 cup minus 2 tbsp) caster sugar

115g (3/4 cup) plain flour

35g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder

Prepare the brownies first (can be done a day ahead); preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Brush a 16 x 26cm (base measurement) slab pan with melted butter. Line with non-stick baking paper, allowing sides to overhang. This stops it sticking to the pan and makes the brownie easy to remove from the pan. Melt the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure bowl doesn't touch water), stirring regularly. Whisk the eggs and egg yolks in a jug until combined. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool slightly before adding the egg mixture. If the chocolate mixture is too hot, the egg may start to cook and scramble. Stir to combine.

Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl. Sift in the cocoa powder. Add the chocolate mixture and stir until just combined - over-stirring can make your cooked brownies tough. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes or until crumbs cling to a skewer inserted into the centre. Don't over-bake your brownies or they can dry out. Cool in tin, then store in an airtight container for at least 6 hours or overnight. This helps the brownie to set.

Bake the cake; preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), grease and line the base of two 18cm round cake tins with baking paper. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and use a whisk to combine, set aside. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add eggs one at a time until combined, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a spatula when needed. Add vanilla and beat again until combined. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Place 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa and boiling water, whisking until it is smooth. Gently mix into the separated bowl of cake batter until combined. Spoon half the vanilla batter and half the mocha batter into the prepared cake tin, and the other half of each batter into the other prepared tin, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and mocha to simulate a checkerboard. Run a table knife through the batter in each tin to create a swirl effect. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Cakes can be made the night before assembly, wrapped in clingfilm and chilled.

Prepare the buttercream; beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high. Mix in the icing sugar until smooth. Beat in the flour and salt. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. Stir in chocolate chips until evenly mixed. Place one cake layer on a cake stand and cover the top of the cake with a layer of the buttercream, smoothing with an offset spatula. Sandwich second cake layer on top. Cover entire cake with the remaining buttercream, smoothing with the offset spatula. Cut brownies into small squares and pile on top of cake (you don't have to use all of them). (Optionally) Melt 100g chocolate and drizzle over the top of the brownie pile. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

This tart is FRIGGIN AMAZING. I know that it's entirely predictable of me to praise a recipe that I'm posting up on this blog but I LOVE THIS TART. I love it so much I completely broke my diet and ate three slices of this tart in the last 24 hours. It is that good. I've been having such a hard time coming up with a dessert recipe that I've wanted to bake recently, and then this tart/pie/thing of beauty came to me. A Chocolate Mousse Tart with a Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust. Oh yes.

I've wanted to try making a pie or tart with a chocolate chip cookie dough crust for a long time now. Since I haven't been able to get my hands on a decent cast iron skillet, I have yet to try making my own skillet cookies and it's something that I've always wanted to try. So this is will have to do for the moment. The tart shell really does look and taste like a giant chocolate chip cookie. It's so amazing. It doesn't require any blind baking with weights, and it is a pretty easy dough to handle. Even if it cracks as you place the dough in the tin, you just need to press it back together and it should be fine, so dont freak out like I did when I lifted my rolled dough and it cracked into about 5 pieces. I was a little worried at first because I made it quite thick (to ensure it was stable) so it was quite hard, but after a night in the fridge with the chocolate mousse filling it had softened just enough to make it fantastic to eat.

The chocolate mousse filling is a dream. It's a pretty standard chocolate mousse, which does use raw/low temperature cooked eggs so if you have issues with that you can try a heavier cooked or eggless mousse but I am a big fan of this recipe. It's so light and super smooth, it's the perfect filling for this crust. I used salted butter in both to ensure it wasn't too sweet, the salt is really important for this recipe and will make it taste more like a chocolate chip cookie.

With the cream on top it kind of reminds me of an American style cream pie, but I'm gonna keep calling it a tart for the moment. Whatever its called, I think you should try making it. You won't regret it (except for the part where you can't stop yourself from eating it and then you might curse it for being too addictive).

Chocolate Mousse Tart with Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

(makes one 24cm tart, tart shell adapted from this recipe and mousse from this Food Network recipe)

For the choc chip cookie tart dough:

130g  (about 4.5oz) brown sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla essence

1/4 tsp salt

125g (4.5 oz/just over 1 stick) butter, room temperature

3 egg yolks

300g (10.6oz/ about 2.5 cups) plain/all purpose flour, sifted

1/2 cup milk or dark chocolate chips, or more if you prefer

With a hand or stand mixer, combine brown sugar, vanilla extract, salt and butter on medium speed. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly combined, but by no means light and fluffy. Add in the yolks, one at a time then reduce speed to low. Add in the flour and chocolate chips all at once and mix until homogenous, add more chips if you wish. If you’re comfortable with dough and a pin, you can roll it right away with very lightly floured hands and rolling pin. Otherwise, form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate about 15 minutes to make the it easier to handle. You can refrigerate the dough for up to a week or freeze for several months. Before rolling, set the dough out and let it slowly come to room temperature over a few hours. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350° F) and lightly grease a 22-24cm loose bottomed tart tin. Dust the counter with a very, very light coat of flour. Roll to 0.75cm (1/3") thickness.Carefully set dough over the tart shell and use your thumbs to press the dough into the corners of the pan. Press the overhanging dough against the edges of the tart pan to trim off the excess and leave the dough flush with the edges. Dock tart lightly with a fork. The dough is extremely forgiving and can be rerolled two or three times, you should be able to press any cracks together to mend them or fill any defects with leftover dough by pressing it gently together. Bake for 20-25 minutes. After 10 minutes or so, check on the tart. If it has formed an air bubble; use a skewer to gently poke a small hole in the bubble to deflate it. Continue baking until the tart is golden brown and firm and dry to the touch. (It is better to slightly overbake than underbake to prevent any raw taste.) Cool in tin for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Shell can be stored in an airtight container overnight.

For the chocolate mousse filling:
(Note the amounts below will yield leftover mousse if you only fill your tart to be level with the edges. You can either pile the mousse filling a bit higher or set the extra mousse in a separate bowl. Who would ever complain about having a bit more mousse?!)

225g (8 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

55g (4 tbsp) butter

3 large eggs, separated (Note this recipe uses raw/slightly cooked eggs, ensure they are fresh and be aware of any risks)

55g (1/4 cup) caster/superfine sugar

375ml (about 1.5 cups) cold thickened/heavy cream

Extra chocolate chips to top

In a large heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth. Return to the heat and add the yolks, 1 at a time, whisking after the addition of each. Remove from the heat and set aside. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Gradually add only half (1/8th cup) of the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, beat the cream until it becomes frothy. Add the remaining  sugar (1/8th cup) and continue beating until it holds stiff peaks.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture until no white specks appear. Using only half of the whipped cream, gradually fold in until smooth. Spoon the mousse into the pre-baked tart shell and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate until well chilled, tart is best served after being chilled overnight. To serve, spoon the remaining whipped cream on top and garnish with extra chocolate chips. Cut into wedges and serve. Leftover tart can be stored in an airtight container (even with the extra cream on top) in the fridge for up to two days.

Salted & Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Catchy name isn't it? It's been a fun few days for me trying to perfect this recipe, because it means I have a constant supply of cookies on my kitchen counter. And my whole house smells like cookies. Heck, even my hair was smelling like cookies. For those of you who love chocolate chip cookies as much as I do, you know this is a good thing.

Besides the catchy name, keep an open mind about these cookies and don't get knock 'em til you've tried them. They came about because I've been wanting to try a bunch of different experiments with my chocolate chip cookies. Not that there's anything wrong with my regular foolproof chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I'd seen a few different variations recently and I wanted to try it out for myself.

The first experiment was adding lots of salt, after having these awesome salty chocolate chip cookies at Hart's Pub during the Gourmet Rabbit launch party. Apparently it was the same cookie dough they use for their chocolate chip cookie skillet and it was eye-opening. The extra dash of salt really balanced out the sweetness of the chocolate in these freshly baked cookies, making them so intensely moreish. The other recipe I was interested in trying was Pioneer Woman's Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies because how darn good do they look?!

I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Actually it was going to be three, since my brother recently asked why I hadn't done anything with salted caramel in a while, so I was going to make them malted & salted caramel chocolate chip cookies. But after throwing some chopped up soft caramel chews into my first batch of cookie dough, I watched as these cookies bubbled and gooped themselves all over the tray and then cooled into a hard crunchy disk of messiness, all because of the caramel. As soon as I realised what was happening I made this panicked squeaking noise and then ran back to the remaining cookie dough to dig out the rest of the caramel pieces. After that I tried chopping up maltesers (or malted milk balls for those in the US) and sprinkling them on top. This sort of worked; it was delicious but the chocolate on the maltesers bubbled up and looked pretty darn ugly. Hm. A was more than happy to eat up the failed batches, something about the salt levels and the caramel helped to overcome his general lack of interest in cookies.

So with my final attempt at these cookies I kept it simple. It was my regular cookie dough with a large amount of extra salt plus tons of chocolate chips to help balance it out, and a good amount of malted milk powder. The result was this beauty of a cookie - thin, chewy in the centre with a golden, buttery crunch around the edges. The Salted & Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie! For some of the batches I baked them a little longer so they went dark golden brown and were crunchy all the way through (the way I usually like my cookies, see 3rd photo of this post) and these were great too. Basically it's up to you to decide if you want to make them chewy or crunchy and adjust the baking time accordingly. The hit of malt flavour adds something extra special, making it just like a malteser in cookie form. I used Horlicks, but I'm totally going to use Milo next time! I loved the hit of salt in every bite, I reckon it's a great recipe for anyone who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. But the sweet tooths will love it anyway, because of all that chocolate ;)

Salted & Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe, makes 36 cookies)
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup malted milk powder, or Horlicks, Milo or Ovaltine
1 1/4 cups (approx 175g) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups + 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or more, because there's no such thing as too much chocolate!)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two cookie sheets with baking paper. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until fluffy and pale. Add vanilla and egg and beat on low for a minute to combine. Add malt powder and beat on medium for a minute to combine. With the mixer still on low, add in the sifted flour, baking powder and salt until just combined. The dough should come together and be quite dry and a bit sticky. Using a wooden spoon fold through 1 & 1/2 cups of chocolate chips.

Place level tablespoons of cookie mixture on a lined baking tray, press dough down to form a flat disk, about 1 cm high and 5 cm diameter. leaving at least 3cm space around each cookie to allow it to spread. With the extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, press a small amount of extra chips into the surface of each round. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they start to turn golden brown on the edges. You can bake 2 trays at a time, but make sure to switch the top and bottom trays around halfway through to allow each tray to bake evenly. The sooner you remove them the chewier they will be. If you wish them to be crunchier, leave them in there for longer but make sure the bottoms don't burn (remember they will cook a bit more while cooling on the trays). Allow to cool and harden slightly on the tray for 5 minutes before placing biscuits on a wire rack to cool further.

PB&J Cookies/Fairy Bread Biscuits

You call that that a sandwich cookie? THIS is a sandwich cookie.

I don't know if it's been done before, but this very simple idea had to be done as soon as it came to me. Sugar cookies shaped into teeny tiny bread slices and made to look like sanwiches? The possibilities were endless...and so darn cute! My initial plans for BLT cookies were put on hold for something a bit simpler, so I could first check that the cookies would look enough like bread slices. So I made some teeny tiny peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich cookies. And fairy bread ones! For those unfamiliar with fairy bread, it's a fabulous treat that takes me straight back to birthday parties from my childhood, slices of white bread covered in butter and multicoloured sprinkles.

I whipped out Martha's trusty sugar cookie recipe for this; it's very easy to handle and holds its shape without turning out rock hard. Though it's freezing cold in Sydney at the moment, so I had no problem with the butter in my dough melting. If you're doing this on a warm day, I'd definitely recommend sticking your dough in the fridge every now and then to keep it cool so it doesn't get greasy. It was so fun forming my cookie dough into mini 'bread loaves' and then slicing them up. They expand a tiny bit while baking, but less so the longer you chill the dough for. My house was filled with the wonderful smell of baked sugar cookies, and they came out looking so cute! It's best to take them out when they are still quite pale in the centre, as they tend to cook a bit further while they cool on the tray. I thought about dipping the edges of the cookie in chocolate to make it look more like it had a crust, but it wasn't worth it effort.

Taste-wise, they are awesome. The fairy bread ones are made with a simple butter icing, which is delish! Definitely on the sweet side, but I love the novelty and I think kids would too. I have a thing for miniature food. And really, white bread is so full of sugar so it's not that different to a sugar cookie. I definitely preferred the open sandwich cookies to the closed ones, there was just wayy too much cookie when they are sandwiched together. But sandwiching does make transporting a lot easier, I ended up with jam and sprinkles everywhere. Feel free to just make the cookies and fill them with your own 'sandwich fillings'. Can't wait to try lots of different versions now!

PB&J Cookies/Fairy Bread Biscuits
(adapted from Martha Stewart's sugar cookie recipe, makes approx 60 cookies or 30 sandwiched cookies - feel free to halve recipe)
600g sifted plain flour (approx 4 US cups)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
225g unsalted butter, room temperature
400g granulated sugar (approx 2 US cups)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For PB&J cookies: peanut butter (or a substitute), jam of your choice
For Fairy Bread biscuits: sprinkles (100s & 1000s to us Aussies), 100g salted butter, 200-250g icing sugar

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Place butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (If you're like me and don't have a paddle attachment, a regular mixer works fine on high speed, scraping the bowl down with a spatula every now and then) Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. The mixture should form a soft & easy to handle, but not sticky dough. Divide dough into quarters; use your hands to roll each quarter into a rectangular block, about 4cmx5cm thick. (If the dough gets too soft, chill it for 10 mins so that it firms up) Using your thumbs and forefingers, pinch along the middle of the top and the two sides to form indents along the length of the block, so that the dough resembles a bread loaf. (See photo below) Keep the bottom of the block flat. Wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate until firm; at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line baking sheets with baking paper. Remove dough from the fridge and use a sharp knife to slice 0.4cm slices of 'bread'. Slice them thinner if you plan on sandwiching two slices together in your final cookies. Place on baking sheet, leaving at least 3cm between each cookie. While you are slicing up your dough, place your prepared sheets of sliced cookies in the fridge to stay cool. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until edges turn golden. Let cool on baking sheets on wire rack.

When completely cool, spread peanut butter & jam on the cookies, sandwiching two together if you prefer, or you can keep them open. If you are making the fairy bread biscuits, remove butter from fridge 30 mins before starting. Beat butter with an electric mixer on high until it is fluffy and pale. Sift icing sugar in, beating to combine. You can keep adding icing sugar until it reaches your desired consistensy. Spread thinly over biscuits and dip into sprinkles. Can be stored for several days in an airtight container.

Assorted Condensed Milk Cookies

Since the new year, I've been guilt-tripped on to the inevitable health-kick that follows all the unhealthy holiday eating. Because of this, I've had trouble getting thoughts of fried chicken out of my head. And cookies. All I wanted to eat this week was masses and masses of junk food. I'm a stress-eater, and nothing sounded better at the end of a shit day than some milk and cookies. So when the weekend came around, it was not surprising that I didn't feel like baking anything but cookies.

I can't take credit for this recipe. I didn't have much ingredients in my cupboard except for the basics and a can of condensed milk, so I googled 'condensed milk cookies'. Interestingly I found several similar looking basic recipes that everyone seemed to remember from their childhood. It sounded so wonderfully straight-foward and easily adaptable, it was essentially three ingredients plus whatever toppings you like. I had to give it a go.

I can't believe I haven't heard of this recipe before. It is kind of magical. It deepens my love for condensed milk further, if that's even possible. Some recipes called for additions of sugar and/or vanilla extract, but I simplified it down to just butter, condensed milk and (self-raising) flour. I wasn't entirely sure it would taste like much, but it totally works. The cookies turn out crisp and golden, and pretty much melt in the mouth. (However I should mention that I used good quality butter, which always helps. I do not approve of those who use margarine to bake.)

Because I am undecisive, I experimented with several cookie flavours. They all tasted great, I can't pick a favourite. Chocolate chips mixed into the dough is always a classic, and though they are very different from my two favourite choc chip cookie recipes, I am always willing to try new recipes. Especially when they simple! The child in me loves the rainbow sprinkle coated cookies, in the same way I will always love chocolate freckles. And the cookies coated in dessicated coconut are so light and aromatic (mmm toasted coconut...), they remind me of some of the cookies you can get in Malaysia during Chinese New Year.

Anyway, I had to share this recipe with you. I love the idea that the base of this recipe is just butter, condensed milk, flour and toppings. It was perfect for me, who was trying to use up the scraps in my cupboard without having to run down to the shops. You can use whatever toppings you feel like, I would love to try these again with sultanas or chopped up dates, and maybe some triple chocolate ones with cocoa powder mixed into the dough. I might be on a health-kick, but I still had to try at least one of each cookie for taste-testing purposes. Cookie cravings begone!

Condensed Milk Cookies (with Chocolate Chips, Sprinkles or Coconut)

(makes a LOT of cookies, based on several recipes available online: 1 2 3 4)

400g (3.5 sticks) butter, softened (I used some salted butter, you might want to add a pinch of salt if using unsalted butter)

1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk

4 cups (about 500g) self-raising flour (you can make your own using plain flour + baking powder, just follow instructions on baking powder pack)

Toppings of your choice: I mixed 200g chocolate chips into half the dough, and coated 1/4 of the remaining cookies with coconut, and the other 1/4 with 100s & 1000s (rainbow sprinkles), you can also use nuts, sultanas, milo, cocoa powder, candied fruit, all kinds of stuff! If you want to make plain cookies you might want to add some extra sugar or vanilla because the dough needs a little extra something to go with it.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two cookie sheets with baking paper. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until smooth and fluffy. Add condensed milk and beat until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl every now and then to ensure it mixes evenly. Stir in flour until just combined. The mixture should come together easily as a dough that is soft but still easy to handle with lightly-floured hands. (You may need to add extra flour, a tablespoon at a time if the mixture is too sticky). Take care not to overmix or you will make your biscuits tougher.

Add your desired toppings. As mentioned, I split my mixture in half and stirred chocolate chips into one half. Roll balls of cookie dough (I used a heaped tsp amount for small bite-sized cookies, and a heaped tbsp for larger cookies), press into discs and arrange on prepared trays. Leave at least a cm around each cookie. For the cookies I coated in toppings (sprinkles or coconut), I rolled them into balls  with unfloured hands, then pressed them flat into a bowl of the toppings to coat the cookie.

Bake until cookies are light golden (about 12-15 mins for small cookies, 15-20 for larger cookies). If baking in hot weather, keep the uncooked cookies in the fridge until ready to go into the oven. Remove from oven and cool on tray for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for several days.

This recipe makes a large amount of cookies, you can stir in the toppings and then roll the mixture into logs and wrap in clingfilm. These logs can be refrigerated for up to a week and sliced and baked at your convenience. Alternatively you can freeze the cookie dough logs to store it for longer, just defrost in the fridge for half an hour and do the same thing.

Strawberry Milk Macarons with Cookie Dough Buttercream

It's interesting how much of an influence my childhood has had on my favourite flavours. I grew up eating light sponges and regular yellow birthday cakes and I've never had the least bit of interest in dense mud cakes. I had a mug of hot milo before bed on most evenings, and that obsession has never gone away. Grape flavoured bubble tape and Grape Fanta has ensured my attachment to fake grape flavoured treats. And the strip of strawberry in a tub of neapolitan ice cream has locked in my intense love for all things strawberry milk flavoured. It may be artificial tasting to some people and it does tend to make me feel a little ill because I always have too much, but strawberry ice cream, strawberry flavoured milk and (I'm a little ashamed to admit it) Macca's strawberry thickshakes are my weakness. I can never resist it but I always regret it later.

Suze was telling me about the strawberry milk macarons from Cafe Cre Asion that sounded amazing and I really wanted to try. With the combination of my strawberry flavoured milk weakness and Suze's encouraging "Dooooo it"'s, I had to test it out for myself. I decided to combine it with another idea that I had for a cookie dough buttercream. It seemed kind of appropriate, I've mentioned on this blog before that I have a serious weakness for choc chip cookies. They are the one thing besides scones that I will whip up randomly just so I can be a total pig, and I can never stop at one. So this macaron flavour was full of all the things I was addicted to.

I thought about flavouring the macaron shells with Strawberry Nesquik to give it the strawberry milk flavour, and some quick searching on the internet proved to me that it should work well (see What The Fruitcake?!). I also found a cookie dough buttercream from Annie Eats which looked amazing and I had to try. Oh my god. THIS BUTTERCREAM IS ON ANOTHER LEVEL. It is so good. I insist that you try it immediately, put it on a cupcake or just sit there are eat it straight out of the mixing bowl with a wooden spoon like I did. And it has the added bonus of not having any raw egg in it. It really tastes just like cookie dough, I also used slightly salted butter to give it a little extra kick and mixed in small dark chocolate chip bits in the hope that it would help offset the super sweetness from the strawberry nesquik in the macaron shells.

I was actually surprised by how intense the flavour of strawberry came through in the macarons. It was almost too strong, it kind of overpowered the flavour of the cookie dough buttercream. I'm glad that I made sure to fill the macarons with a very thick layer of buttercream, it really needed it and it tasted so good. I've also adjusted the amount of strawberry nesquik in the macarons because I think I used a little too much in my original recipe. I'd even consider adding even more salt to the buttercream, because it still seemed a tad too sweet for my liking. But you really can taste that strawberry milk flavour in these macarons. It might not be everyone's favourite flavour, but it's one of mine and I can't say no to it.

Strawberry Milk Macarons with Cookie Dough Buttercream
(buttercream recipe adapted from Annie Eats)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, at room temperature and well sifted
150g icing sugar
50g Strawberry Nesquik
50g caster sugar
Optional: 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary

For the buttercream:
115g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature (I used slightly salted butter)
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk
1/2 pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips (or very finely chopped dark chocolate, I pulsed mine through the food processor to break it up)

Prepare the macarons; Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar and strawberry nesquik in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar (and then add food colouring) and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour to an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°F), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Prepare the icing, beat together the butter and brown sugar a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until creamy. With the mixer on low, gradually add sifted icing sugar, then increase speed and beat until combined. Beat in the flour and salt on low until just combined. With the mixer still on low, beat in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended. Fold in mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Sandwich macaron shells with a generous amount of buttercream, I used about a tablespoon or so for each. Refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.