Chewy chocolate button cookies!!

I've been searching for a chewy cookie recipe and someone put me on to this one http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/4807/best-big--fat--chewy-chocolate-chip-cookie.aspx I tried it out last night and it was great.

The first version I did was double chocolate with milk and dark choc buttons which are everything a choc chip cookie should be!

The second half of the mixture I did white chocolate and craisins. These are equally good so now I'm torn between the two and don't know which to eat first. These cookies are so good, I'd really recommend trying them.

Raspberry cream buns

One of the main reasons I wanted to make white bread rolls was to have another go at raspberry buns. Once the buns were cooled I split them in half, placed raspberry jam in the bottom then filled them with whipped cream. I then topped with a variety of icings. I did a couple with plain raspberry icing and a couple with raspberry coconut icing. I also did a couple with straight icing sugar for those with a less sweet tooth! (not me!!) Any way you had them, these were fantastic and a perfect weekend treat!

Awesome bread rolls!

These ones turned out perfectly! This was a white bread mix, again with the dough made in the bread maker. I then lightly kneaded it, and shaped into balls, then placed them on the baking tray and left them to rise for another hour or so. I then baked them for about 20 mins at 180 until risen and golden - YUM!!

Roast vegetable and chicken soup with warm rolls

Have been having some yummy soups lately. I discovered that if you throw all the leftovers from a roast in a pot together, add some chicken stock and water and boil it for a few hours it turns into absolutely delicious soup! The secret is to take out as many bones as possible, then wizz it all up and put it through a sieve to catch any small bones. It doesn't look super appealing but man, it tastes good!

The best thing to go with it is some hot, fresh, home made rolls. These ones are a basic bread maker dough which I then shaped and baked for 20 mins on 180 degrees.

Banoffee pie

Thought I would finish off our fabulous mothers day feast of roast chicken and veg with a banoffee pie. I made a shortcrust pastry last night and baked it blind for about 30 mins till golden. I removed it from the dish once it was cool. This afternoon I mixed up a butterscotch instant pudding and filled the pastry case with it. Once set I topped with banana slices then piped whipped cream into rosettes on the top. I was going to drizzle melted chocolate over the top but the chocolate seized! However we thought it looked and tasted great just how it was! This was my first real attempt at pipng and I was pleasantly suprised how well it turned out!

Raspberry buns

I discovered raspberry essence in the supermarket recently so I thought I'd have a go at Raspberry Buns. I googled them and found most of the recipes were the same. It turns out it was a basically a scone type mix for the buns.

I then made icing using the raspberry essence and a bit of extra red food colouring. I did a couple with icing then coconut

then decided to mix the coconut into the icing instead.

These were different to what I expected but quite tasty all the same. The kids especially thought they were good.

I also made a large version. I preferred this as it was a bit more of a bread texture than a scone. I iced it, then cut into slices and spread it with butter so it was more like a Sally Lunn. This was more to my taste, though of course, the kids preferred the small version with more icing!

Yoghurt berry crunch

I decided the kids needed a little treat for afternoon tea so I simply put some greek yoghurt in a bowl, topped it with cornflakes, added some frozen berries and drizzled it with lemon honey. Quick and easy and the kids thought I was supermum!

butter chicken

This was a delicious variation of the butter chicken pies. We had decided to have these with rice instead of as pies. Instead of using 1 cup of evaporated milk I used a whole tine of coconut milk to make it extra saucy! Yum!!