Passionfruit Melting Moments

The best bikkie to go with a cup of tea!  These cookies are appropriately named because they melt in your mouth as you bite in.  If you love shortbread, you will LOVE melting moments.  Raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream is the more traditional filling, but I love the slight zing the passionfruit gives, and really, how often can you say you get to use passionfruit?

 

 

 

 

For the Melting Moment:

• 125g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup (115g) plain flour
• 1/4 cup (45g) pure icing sugar
• 1/3 cup (50g) cornflour
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

For the Passionfruit Filling:

• 5-6 tsp Passionfruit filling (usually can find near the ice cream toppings...not that I would know...)
• 60g butter, softened
• 1 cup (150g) pure icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160°C. (That's 320F for the fellow Americans.) Line an oven tray with baking paper. Use an electric mixer to beat butter until pale and creamy. Add flour, icing sugar, cornflour and lemon zest; stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Wrap in cling-film/plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30min.

 

Hand-roll 2 teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls. (Refridgerating the dough makes the cookies look neater) Place on lined tray, about 3cm apart. Use a fork dusted with cornflour to gently flatten. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked through. Set aside on the tray to cool.

 

To make the filling, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until pale and creamy. Add the icing sugar, passionfruit pulp and lemon juice and beat until well combined.  You can add more or less passionfruit filling if you like, depending upon how much zing you want.

 

Place filling in a small piping bag fitted. Pipe a little filling onto the underside of a biscuit. Sandwich with a second biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and filling.  Lightly dust the top of the sandwiched cookies with powdered sugar through a sieve.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

P.S.: Yes, this is all the entire batch makes, which I think is a good thing because these cookies are dangerously good.



Key Lime Tartlets

I made these little beauties for a dinner party with a few friends over the weekend.  The original recipe is from Martha Stewart, but I added in some extra lime zest to give it more punch, and as her recipe was for one single pie, I've increased the crust ingredients in order to not be leftover with a whole bunch of filling and adjusted cooking times to eliminate burn-age!

For the crust:

• 2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs OR wheaten biscuits smashed with a teaspoon of cinnamon mixed in (you can also add in some more cinnamon to the graham crackers if you like)
• 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 4 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the key lime filling:

• 1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 large free range egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated key lime zest, plus some extra for garnish if you like

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine graham-cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in a medium bowl; mix well. Press into individual mini tartlet shells (yields 18) and bake until lightly browned, 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled. (I had to do this 3 times as I only had 6 mini tartlet shells to use)

Lower oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, Key lime juice, and zest. Spoon into the prepared, cooled crusts.

Return tartlets to oven, and bake until the center is set but still quivers when the pan is nudged, 4-7minutes. (It's fast because they are so small!) Let cool completely on a wire rack.

You can top them with lime zest as a garnish if you like or put some whip cream on top.  I thought they looked cute just like this.

 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

These are my man's favourite cookie, so while I am not a huge fan, I felt obliged to find a recipe that would make these more to my liking...and here we have it!!!  They basically taste like my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe just no chocolate chips.

 

 

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter (126g), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180C) to start.  Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl and set aside. Mix butter with sugars in a different bowl. Add vanilla and eggs and mix until smooth and fluffy. Now add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and combine. Stir in the chips and nuts.

 

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. The tops might still look doughy but they will cook as they sit on the cookie sheet. Let sit on cookie sheets for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack and let cool.

 

 

 

Grab a glass of milk, dip your cookie, and enjoy!

 

Italian Creme Cake

This is my favourite cake of all time, but I had only ever had it at an Italian restaurant where I worked as a waitress.  I could never get the recipe because we ordered it out from a patisserie.  When I found this recipe, I was so excited that I might actually be able to taste this cake again...Oh man...I am in trouble now!!! My boyfriend tried it and said it was the best cake he's ever had! Whoop Whoop!

 

 

 

For the Cake:

1 stick of butter (113g)
½ cup vegetable shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shredded/dessicated coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
5 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

Cream together the butter and shortening. Beat in the sugar. Next add egg yolks and beat. Then add the flour and soda in small portions,  alternating with adding in the buttermilk at the same time. Stir in the vanilla. Now you can add the coconut & pecans. Fold this batter gently into the stiffly beaten egg whites, adding a little at a time so as not to knock the air out of the egg whites. Pour into greased and floured 9 in cake pans and bake at 350 for 20 – 25 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to completely cool.

 For the Frosting:
12oz cream cheese, softened
 3/4 cup butter (170g), softened
 1 1/2 lbs. powdered sugar (750g)
1 tsp vanilla
 chopped pecans and toasted coconut, optional

Mix the cream cheese and butter together. Then add in the sugar and vanilla. You can now frost the cake however you deem fit!  I liked putting the mixed coconut and pecans on the sides.  Some people combine this into the frosting.  It's your cake...Do what YOU like!

 

Recipe compliments of Southern with a Twist