WCW- Chocolate Chunk Scones

Everyone loves a good scone recipe, and chocolate is always popular! These Chocolate Chunk scones are very decedent and deliver a mouthful of chocolate in each bite.

The ingedients should already be in your baking cupboard- unless you are like me and use cooking chocolate as a late night snack!



It doesn't take long to mix the dry ingredients together, then add the butter and form a dough with the other ingredients.



I take the lazy way with scones and cook them as a whole round, then slice into wedges when cool.



Mmmm, look at all of this chocolate!

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Chocolate Chunk Scones

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup full fat milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 200g dark chocolate block
• 4 tablespoons full fat milk
• 3 tablespoons castor sugar
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and prepare a large baking tray. Whisk together the sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. Add the cubed butter and work into the flour mixture until crumbly.Transfer the dough to a floured surface and shape it into an 8 inch circle. Place on the baking tray and brush the top with milk, then sprinkle the castor sugar over the top.Cook for 20 minutes, then cut into 12 wedges and serve.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 20 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 12 scones

WCW- Apple and Date Scrolls

I love including home baked goodies in my boys' lunchboxes, and I am lucky that both of my kids love dried fruit and apples. I put this combination together to come up with Apple and Date scrolls.

The dough can be made by hand or in a breadmaker- you will be left with a sticky, wet dough that will need to be put on a well floured surface.



Once the dough is rolled out, you add grated apple to the centre and roll from the shorter end across. You then cut the roll to create the scrolls.



Make sure you place each scroll in a well greased pan, and leave a little bit of room for them to spread as they cook.



Once they are cooked, you can sprinkle on some icing sugar to serve.

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Apple and Date Scrolls

by May-11-2016

Ingredients

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 60 grams chilled cubed butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup chopped dried dates
• 2 green apples
• 1/3 cup icing sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200°C. Brush a baking tray with melted butter to lightly grease. Place flour, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Use your fingers to rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre and add the milk and dates. Use a round-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until evenly incorporated and the mixture just comes together. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead for 2 minutes or until smooth. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out dough into a 25 x 30cm rectangle. Sprinkle with grated apple. Starting from the long side, firmly roll dough into a log. Trim the ends. Cut crossways into twelve 2cm thick slices. Arrange scrolls cut-side up, side by side on prepared tray. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

WCW- Rhubarb Berry Biscuits

I wanted to make some mini biscuits for school lunches, and I had some delicious rhubarb syrup in my pantry. The idea came about to ice the biscuits with a rhubarb syrup icing for extra flavour!

I have used a standard strawberry jam for this recipe, but feel free to use any berry flavour you would like for these biscuits.

Rhubarb Berry Biscuits

125g butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup Barkers Squeezed Rhubarb with Raspberry and Rosehip Syrup
1 tablespoon hot water

Filling
1/4 cup Raspberry Jam

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and bring together to form a dough. Roll out on a floured surface and cut small circle rounds.



Arrange circles on a prepared baking tray and bake at 180 degrees C for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, mix together the syrup, icing sugar and hot water until it is a spreadable consistency but not too runny.

When the biscuits are cool, spread raspberry jam on the bottom of one biscuit, then place another biscuit on top of the jam. Spread a thick layer of the icing on the top biscuit.



These are a great size for lunchboxes or to have with a cup of tea.



As you can see, my kids approved!

WCW- Banana, Rum and Raisin Bundt Cake

Those overripe bananas strike again- this time I have mashed them into a rum and raisin bundt cake that is quick and easy for entertaining.



Banana, Rum and Raisin Bundt Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
½ cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 ½ teaspoon rum extract
3 very ripe bananas, mashed

Filling

½ cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ cup butter

½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.

In a small bowl combine the filling ingredients until they form a paste and set aside.

In a large bowl sift in the the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the brown sugar, butter, eggs, sour cream, milk, rum extract and bananas, mixing until just combined.

Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan.  Spread the filling mixture across the cake batter.  Carefully pour over the remaining batter.  Bake for 55 minutes.

Cut and serve warm. This will keep in an airtight container for a week but is best eaten on the day you make it. 

WCW Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream and Hokey Pokey Crumble

Today's creation is a bit of a mouthful- both to say and to eat!

My husband recently celebrated his birthday, and I wanted to come up with a spectacular cake that would look and taste amazing. I had a few bananas languishing in my fruit bowl (doesn't everyone?) and so it was only fair I make a banana cake. The idea evolved from there and I ended up with a creamy and delicious cake.

I you are not in New Zealand you may not be familiar with Hokey Pokey, so I have shared a step by step process below. If you are short on time you could top with a Crunchie or Honeycomb bar, but I love making hokey pokey and my boys love the science behind it!



Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream and Hokey Pokey Crumble

For the cake
1 1/3 cups white sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups  mashed bananas
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a round cake tin.
Cream together sugar and butter then mix in sour cream and eggs. Stir in mashed banana and vanilla extract. Add the flour, salt and baking soda then mix well.
Pour batter into prepared tin, and bake in the middle rack of your oven for 35-40 minutes.

For the Brown Sugar Buttercream- original recipe from I Heart Eating
7 T. all-purpose flour
1 ¼ c. milk
1 ½ T. pure vanilla extract
1 ½ c. salted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ c. brown sugar, packed
Pinch of salt

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it becomes thick.
Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla extract  and let it cool to room temperature.
While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy, then add the completely cooled milk mixture.
Beat for about 5 minutes until it looks like whipped cream.

For the Hokey Pokey
5 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda

Prepare a buttered glass baking dish.

Put sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan.



Heat gently, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.



Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Boil for two minutes. Stir occasionally, if necessary, to prevent burning. Remove from heat.

Add baking soda. Stir quickly until mixture froths up rapidly!



Pour into the buttered dish immediately.



Leave until cold and hard then place in a snaplock bag and crush with a rolling pin to form the crumble.



To create the cake, spread a thick layer of the buttercream on top of one cut circle and place the other circle on top.



Pipe remaining buttercream on the top of the cake using a star nozzle.



Sprinkle the Hokey pokey crumble over the top of the cake. You may want to do this just before serving as it does melt into the buttercream over time.



Slice and serve!



This cake was the perfect celebration cake, and a welcome change from a traditional chocolate birthday cake.



Even better, it still tasted great the next day!

WCW Pineapple Ginger Caramel Slice

I love looking through my mum's old recipe book- it is such a trip down memory lane. It is so fun to recall childhood meals and memories of lunchbox baking, and now to have the recipes to give to my family is a very special thing.

One of the recipes in my mum's book was for a slice that I remember her making for adults, which I never tried. Luckily, both of my boys like pineapple and ginger, so when I made this slice the entire family inhaled it and I had something for everyone's lunchbox!



Pineapple and Ginger Caramel Slice
125 g butter

1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp hot water
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 450g tin crushed pineapple
2 tbsp crystallised ginger (chopped)

Directions  

Grease a 20cm x 30cm sponge roll tin.
Cream together the first measure of butter and sugar.
Add the hot water and beat.
Sift flour and baking powder together, and add to the butter mix.
Press mixture into tin, retaining a piece the size of a golf ball and placing this in the fridge to chill.
Bake at 190 degrees C for 20 minutes.
Heat the condensed milk, butter, golden syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan.
Pour over the baked base.
Drain the pineapple well and sprinkle this on top of the base, along with the ginger. 

Grate the reserved base mixture over the top. 

Return to the oven and bake at 160 degrees C for 10 minutes.
Cut when cool.

This is so gooey and yum, and the flavours go together wonderfully. Try to get the best crystallised ginger available for your budget as this really makes a difference to the slice.

WCW Cameo Slice

One of my favourite treat biscuit is Cameo Cremes- a delicious chocolate biscuit with a creamy centre. I needed a quick slice a few weeks ago, and had a packet of these biscuits in the fridge, and so Cameo Slice was created!

Cameo Slice
1 packet Cameo Creme biscuits, coarsely crushed
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins

for the icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

In a saucepan or microwave jug, heat the butter, sweetened condensed milk and brown sugar until butter is melted and sugar has dissolved. Mix in the biscuits and raisins. Press into a slice form and refrigerate for two hours.

Mix together the icing ingredients and spread over the base. Let cool then cut into slices.



This is like having a Cameo Creme biscuit with added deliciousness! The raisins stop it from being too sweet, and the texture is firm but easy to eat. I have made this a few times and each time it has been easy, yummy and eaten far too quickly!

WCW Pinterest Week April

Recently I decided to try some of the delicious recipes I had pinned on Pinterest, as there is no point in me pinning them if I don't make them! I did manage to photograph some of them, but with the light fading by 5pm every night thanks to Autumn, it was a bit tricky to get a dinnertime photo.

My menu plan for Pinterest Week was as follows:

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
Easy Baked Fish
Chicken Tortilla Bake
Pizza Steak Sandwiches in the Slow Cooker
Spicy Sausage Pasta
Cordon Bleu Lasagne
One Skillet Chicken Pot Pie
Lemon White Chocolate Blondies

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
The soup was delicious- the boys really like tomato soup and their "pasta parcels" so this was a quick and easy dish to make when I was feeling less than inspired. Verdict: KEEP!

Easy Baked Fish
This was pretty good, but didn't crisp up as much as I would have liked, I think next time I make this I will use more breadcrumbs and less mayonnaise. Verdict: KEEP!

Chicken Tortilla Bake
This was such an easy casserole to put together, and the boys especially enjoyed it. This was a great warming meal for all of us, and the husband was happy to have leftovers for the next couple of days! Verdict: KEEP!

Pizza Steak Sandwiches in the Slow Cooker
After three wonderful meals, this one didn't quite hit the mark. The meat was still quite chewy, and the boys only ate the pepperoni, cheese and bread. Verdict: DELETE.

Spicy Sausage Pasta
Now this meal was popular! The boys inhaled it, and the leftovers the next day were even better. Verdict: KEEP!

Cordon Bleu Lasagne

I wanted to like this, I really did. My husband enjoyed it, but I just found the seasonings and mixes of cheese weird. The boys weren't big fans either- they picked the chicken out but didn't eat the pasta. Verdict: DELETE.

One Skillet Chicken Pot Pie
As we sat down to eat this, my 5 year old looked at me, looked at his food and said "you are the best mum ever!" This dish is worth keeping just because of that reaction! The dumplings were so amazingly light and fluffy, and the dinner table was silent as we all were too busy eating this delicious meal. Verdict: KEEP!

Lemon White Chocolate Blondies
I had some guests over for a few coffee groups this week, and these blondies received high praise from some of the ladies who had never head of a blondie before. Next time I might tone down the icing- which was my fault as I deviated from the recipe, but as written this blondie is delicious!
Verdict: KEEP!

I have decided to make this a monthly series, with the last Wednesday of each month dedicated to seven recipes plus a dessert or baking dish I have tried from Pinterest each month. If you have any suggestions of recipes I can try, or if you would like me to try out one of your recipes, please let me know as I am always on the lookout for yummy things!

WCW Cocoa Banana Bars

If you are like me, you always have one or two bananas that get left behind in the fruit bowl. At the end of the week, they usually get made into banana omelettes or banana bread, but this week I decided to try something a bit different for the school lunchboxes.

Cocoa Banana Bars

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 2 medium)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat an oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and the vanilla and beat until well combined. Stir in the mashed banana, set aside.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate large bowl, and make a well in the center. Pour the banana mixture into the well and stir just until combined.

Remove half of the batter from the bowl. Mix the cocoa powder into the batter remaining in the bowl and stir well. Spread the cocoa batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spoon the remaining batter on top and use a knife to swirl the batter into a marbled design.

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, about 25 minutes. Allow to cool before cutting.



This recipe also makes great bread or muffins! It gets the thumbs up from both my husband and 5 year old, and is a deliciously moist bar that will keep for a week in an airtight container.

How do you use up your leftover bananas? I would love some recipe inspiration!

WCW Tropical Teacakes

Those pesky bananas are still lurking in my fruit bowl as my 2 year old insists on buying them every time we go to the supermarket! 

I decided to whip up these teacakes instead of the usual muffins or bread. I used a pretty baking mold but you could use a mini loaf pan or muffin trays instead. These are dairy and egg free, and perfect to whip up for a quick afternoon tea.

Tropical Teacakes

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tablespoons Healtheries Black Chia seeds

4 tablespoons ground flaxseed

1/4 cup cold water

2 small bananas

1/2 cup orange and mango juice

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

extra 1/4 cup orange and mango juice

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together. Create a well in the center and set aside.

Mix the water, flaxseed and Black Chia seeds to form a paste. Mix in mashed bananas and juice and add to the dry mixture. Mix well.

Fold in the coconut and add extra juice if needed. You want the mixture to be quite runny, about the consistency of pancake mix.

Add a dessertspoon full of the mixture to each mold or muffin tray. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until tops are lightly browned.

Serve warm or keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

WCW Apple Shortcake Slice

My mum's apple tree has been laden with fruit, so I took some apples off her hands. These apples are best eaten cooked, so I stewed up a big batch and thought I would try my hand at recreating the apple shortcake slice I love from my local coffee shop.

Apple Shortcake Slice

You will need:
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
3 cups self-raising flour
2 cups stewed apples

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350F). Lightly grease a 9x13 rectangle baking tray.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla extract and salt. Beat well.

Fold the flour slowly into the mixture.

Divide the mixture in half and press one half of the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Spread with the stewed apples, then roll out the remaining half of the pastry and lay on top of the stewed apples.

Prick some holes in the top layer of pastry and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.


Leave to cool then cut into squares. You should have a clearly defined layer of apples between two shortcake layers when you cut into your slice.



Serve dusted with icing sugar. This can be eaten cold as a cake for a snack, or heated and served with custard or icecream. My boys loved a slice in their lunchboxes!

Linking up with Tatertots and Jello, Pin Me Linky Party and Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday!