2 basic biscuit recipes....this is for you Sarah!

DD Sarah (25) is the one who has abandoned ship and moved out on her own with her baby. This morning on MSN came an urgent request for my 2 favourite biscuit recipes that I have been making for years. I am really sorry but I can't give the credit to anyone because I have had the recipes for so long that I have no idea where they originally came from!

So these are for you Sarah! And of course anyone else who wants to give them a try!! My kids will tell you they are REALLY good!

Chocolate Chip Biscuits/Cookies

makes approx 45

250g softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla and mix well

Sift in flour, baking powder and salt, stir in and mix thoroughly

Add chocolate chips, mix and place mixture in spoonfuls on baking tray

Bake in oven approx 15-20 minutes until light golden

Cool on a wire rack

Peanut Butter Biscuits/Cookies

makes approx 30

90g butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup peanut butter (peanut paste)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

Cream butter and sugar

Stir in the beaten egg, mixing well to blend

Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla extract

Sift in the dry ingredients and then mix well

Knead the mixture slightly to form a stiff, smooth dough, then roll small pieces of the dough in to balls

Place the balls on a greased baking tray and flatten them with a fork

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees C until firm, about 15 minutes

Cool on a wire rack

ENJOY!!

French Macaron Biscuits with Chocolate Ganache

Well this week I was bitten by the masterchef bug and today for the first time in my life I made French macaron biscuits.

Kylie was really the instigator but the bug hit me pretty quickly, sort of like a fast moving virus. I HAD to see if I could do it. After googling and reading everyones' horror stories and failures I was totally prepared for a dismal flop but very oddly for me they worked! I don't think they'd sell in a French Patisserie but they sure as hell made fine eating!

We sandwiched them with a chocolate cream ganache.

Some refinement is needed though. I'd go slightly lower on the oven temperature and make them smaller next time and I'd also cook them one batch at a time on the middle shelf of the oven as a few were a touch browner than I would have liked.

BUT overall I'd say today was a success and a big thank you goes to Kylie for helping and keeping me company while I cooked. It's her turn on the weekend and she is going to attempt a double batch, or so she has told me.

Now I want to play with all sorts of fillings and then the next step after that will be to make different flavoured macarons...............but that's for the future.

This is the recipe I used with a few amendments of my own that came from google research! http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/10/how-to-make-macarons-recipe.html

If you go to the original you will see the differences.

Basic Macaron Biscuits

225g icing sugar

125g gound almonds

110g egg whites (we used 3 and a half), aged overnight at room temperature

30g icing sugar extra

pinch of salt

Using a texta draw 2.5cm circles on sheets of baking paper (ours made 31 single biscuits but our circles were bigger than that, we used a toothpick holder to draw them)

Turn the paper over so that you don't pipe the mixture on to the texta and place on baking trays

Sieve the almond meal and the icing sugar separately and then sieve them both together into a bowl to make sure the mix has no lumps and is very fine, mix thoroughly

Beat the egg whites in another bowl with the salt till soft peaks form and then add the extra icing sugar gradually, beating till you have stiff peaks (you are basically making a meringue mix)

Gently fold the icing sugar mixture (in small batches) in to the egg whites till it reaches what a lot of people call the "flows like magma" stage...which sort of means when you pick a bit up with your spatula and drop it back down on the mixture it dissolves back in to the mixture slowly

Using a piping bag with a 1cm round tip, pipe the mixture on to the prepared circles (or go freehand!)

Tap the baking sheets to remove air bubbles

Let dry for half an hour so a skin forms on the top of each biscuit

Bake in a 180oC oven (I'd use 160 next time, like the original said) for 10 to 11 minutes, with the door propped slightly open with a wooden spoon, turning the tray/s around after 5 minutes for even cooking

Remove from the oven and transfer the baking paper to cooling racks

Whe cool use a thin spatula to remove them from the paper (if this doesn't work I have read that you can put the baking paper on a wet teatowel and that helps remove them, though we had no trouble and didn't even need a spatula)

Pair the biscuits in similar sizes and pipe (or freehand) about a teaspoon of the filling onto one biscuit and sandwich with his mate

Chocolate Cream Ganache Filling

230g chocolate (I used 70% lindt)

1 cup heavy cream

60g butter, softened

Chop the chocolate finely and place in a heatproof bowl

Cream the butter with beaters

Heat the cream till just at boiling and add to the chocolate and stir to melt

Let cool slightly then stir in the butter with a spatula in 2 lots

Cool to a spreadable consistency, I used the fridge to cool it down, but keep an eye on it as it can set pretty quickly

IF it does set too much nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it again

ENJOY!!!