On the twelfth day of Christmas (Rum and Raisin Truffles)

One more sleep until Christmas people - is everyone ready for Santa? Have you got the cookies and milk ready? Don't forget the carrots for the reindeer!

I think we are all ready to go, we have prepared our desserts (chocolate cheesecake, ice-cream sandwiches and some fruit mince pies), got all the ingredients for a great BBQ, put the presents under the tree and stuffed the stockings. So yes I think we are good to go.

I am going to post a round up of the 12 Baking Days of Christmas tomorrow, but in the mean time here is the last recipe in the series - rum and raisin truffles. Very easy to make, extremely decadent and again they make great gifts. Enjoy!


Rum and Raisin Truffles (unknown source)
Makes approximately 45 (I made mine larger so got about 25)

120g raisins
75g flaked almonds, toasted and chopped
1/3 cup rum
400g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup thickened cream
300g dark chocolate, melted
30g copha
60g white chocolate, melted
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cocoa powder

1. Combine raisins and rum in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stir until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Combine 400g of dark chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in raisin mixture and 1/2 the chopped almonds. Refrigerate for about 2 hours or until firm.
3. Take truffle mixture and from 15 bite sized balls, place on a lined baking tray. Roll each ball in remaining chopped almonds, gently pressing almonds to adhere.
4. Roll slightly smaller sized balls and place on another lined tray. Place in freezer for 20 minutes, or until firm.
5. Melt 300g dark chocolate, add copha and stir until smooth. Take off heat. Insert a bamboo skewer into ball and dip into chocolate to cover. Gently tap on side of bowl to remove excess. Place on tray, then repeat with remaining balls. Allow to set at room temperature.
6. Combine melted white chocolate and oil. Drizzle over half the remaining truffles. Allow to set. Before serving, lightly dust remaining truffles with cocoa.

Rating?
4 out of 5 reindeers!

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

I watched an episode of Oprah the other day. I know what you are all thinking - a stay at home mum watching Oprah tsk, tsk. However you have to trust me when I say this, it is not a normal occurrence in this household. Usually Zoe and I will listen to an awesome playlist that Mat created for me on our media center. The playlist includes all my crooners, my necessary dose of Michael Jackson, some alternative-country by Mr Ryan Adams, The Royal Crown Revue and lots of easy listening music.

But anyway, I was talking about Oprah. This episode was all about extreme life lengthening. They had this one man on the show who was in his 50s and was on a calorie controlled diet - 1950 calories each and every day, and most of those calories come from raw food. Some professionals believe that he could very well be the first man to live to 150. The first thing that came to my mind was "how could you possibly live for 150 years and not enjoy delicious food?". No cupcakes, no cookies, no cake, no crossaints, no buttery french toast, no bacon and eggs for breakfast, no ice-cream - I think I would rather be dead. So I say no to a calorie controlled diet and instead I will enjoy my oatmeal and raisin cookies with a nice glass of full-cream milk. I hope that you will do the same.


Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies (from Bringing Home the Baking by Quincella C. Geiger)
Makes approx 5 dozen cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts (I used walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Beat butter at medium speed until cream. Gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
3. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture; mix until well blended. Stir in oats, raisins, and nuts.
4. Measure dough evenly (I used an ice-cream scoop) and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.
   

Cornflake Cookies

Have you had a really good cornflake cookie before? You know the ones - the right amount of crunch from the cornflakes, the right amount of chew from the cookie dough and the right amount of sweetness from the sultanas. Well this recipe did not produce those cookies. Dang it. There were way too many cornflakes so the cookies were almost impossible to put together. In fact a lot of them fell apart after been baked.


Total disaster.

Have you got a tried and true recipe for cornflake cookies? I would love to steal it if you do, so please let me know.

For now here is my dodgy recipe...

Cornflake Sultana Cookies (from The Australian Women's Weekly Basic Cookbook)
Makes about 25

5 cups cornflakes
1 cup coconut (desiccated)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sultanas (I used raisins)
1 cup self-raising flour
185g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Combine cornflakes, coconut, sugar, sultanas and sifted flour in large bowl.
2. Stir in butter and eggs gently with a wooden spoon.
3. Shape rounded tablespoons of mixture into balls (yeah right, that was nearly impossible).
4. Place balls about 5cm apart on greased oven trays.
   
5. Bake at 180C for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
6. Stand cookies for 3 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.
   

New Member of The Cake Slice Bakers

You heard me right, I am one of the new members of The Cake Slice Bakers and I must say I am a little bit excited. Why am I excited you may ask? Well good friends there are a number of reasons:

1. I get to bake something that is not a cupcake for a change.
2. I 'needed' to buy a new cook book to bake from for the next year (Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott).
3. I am now part of an elite group of bakers.

Yes I am excited.

The first cake that was chosen from the new book was the Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake. Now at first I must admit I wasn't very excited about this because I thought that meant that there was actually going to be coffee in the cake. You see I can't stand coffee or anything coffee flavoured - I am a cup of tea kinda gal. After reading the recipe however I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was in fact no coffee in the cake, and instead it is simply a cake that is to be eaten with coffee - yay! So after my absolutely mad weekend (with Zoe's 1st birthday) I baked up this lovely, lovely cake. The cinnamon aroma that comes out of the oven as you bake this cake is just heavenly and the cake itself a lovely balance of light cake with crunchy pecans and chewy raisins. I loved this cake, especially with a drizzle of thickened cream.

Oh and if you are wondering why my cake looks a little dark - let me just say that I won't be trusting Mat to get my cake out of the oven from now on :P


Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake (from Southern Cakes)
Makes a 13"x9" cake

For the Cake:

3 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

For the Filling:

1½ cups brown sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
3 tbsp cinnamon
1½ cups raisins
1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch pan.
2. To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, nut mixture and melted butter by the baking pan to use later.
3. To make the cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.
4. Use a large spoon or spatula to add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir only until the flour disappears. Add a third of the milk and mix in. Repeat twice more until all the flour and milk mixtures have been incorporated. Stir just enough to keep the batter smooth.
5. Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the top. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the leftover cinnamon, butter and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.
6. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant and beginning to pull away from the edges of the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm or at room temperature.