Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies

 
One of things I love about baking so much is sharing what I make with my family and friends, it makes me feel great to have others tasting and testing my treats and really there is no way I could eat everything that comes out of my kitchen.

But sometimes I get put on the spot, you know everyone thinks I'll have something fabulous to bring along for dessert.

Anyway I woke up Friday morning a little late and turned the computer on. I haven't been on the computer much over the last week or so, kinda a blogging and baking holiday.

So I find an email about the party we were going to that night, oh right could I bring dessert........Eeeeek!

Now the host had sent the request 2 days before, but now here I was the morning of the party with nothing made.

In the end I used this old recipe I have had for ever, in fact I mentioned it in my first ever post when
I showed off some Martha Stewart Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cupcakes that were really delicious, but a bit fiddly to make.

This recipe is not fiddly at all, in fact I spent more time deciding what I was going to make in the end than actually making the dessert.

I served this with store bought ice-cream we picked up on the way and some homemade chocolate sauce I had left over.


Voila instant fast dessert for a crowd,  hope you enjoy this one as much as we do.

 recipe after jump

Hey look what I found at Woolies Lip and Heart sprinkles

Look what I found just before Christmas in the baking aisle of Woolies.

Heart and lip sprinkles.

'Cause when you live in Australia and love Bakerella and other US sites it can sometimes be heartbreaking (is that word to strong to use for baking?) when you can't find some of the sweets and treats they use for decorating.

It's a four pack of 'Fantasy Fairy' sprinkles with hearts, lips, pink sugar and pink and white sprinkles.

A couple of other places I use is USA foods based in Melbourne Australia who have Candy Corn, Corn Syrup, Peanut Butter baking chips, Criso, Marshmallow Fluff..........and a stack of other items.

Or if your close to Brisbane Chocolate Boulavard in the Myer Center have a smaller range of US (and UK) sweets and some baking goods.

plus those confectionery stalls in the middle of all the Westfields and other major shopping centers have some of the US candy as well.

Hope you all had lovely holidays, Ill be back baking soon.

White Christmas snowflake decorated sugar cookies

This weekend I'm all about white while I make some treats for my friends winter wonderland table.

Have just finished up these white snowflake sugar cookies decorated with marshmallow fondant and royal icing.

White stand from Sharnel Dollar Designs Pom Poms from Ah-Tissue

White, although elegant can be a little boring so I tried to add some texture, I also included some silver accents as the table will also incorporate silver, but these cookies would look elegant without the addition as well.

See the 3 different cookies above you can add as much or as little decoration as you like or a mixture is nice as well.


Snowflake Winter Wonderland cookies

Make up batch of sugar cookie dough (recipe below) and cut out snowflake cookies, I bought my cutter from Little Betsy Baker.

Bake as per instructions until golden and allow to cool completely.

Roll out fondant (mine is a mixture of 2 thirds marshmallow fondant and one third white ready roll fondant but you can use what you like) on a surface dusted with cornflour or icing sugar and using the same snowflake cookie cutter cut out the snowflake shape. Make sure the cookie cutter is clean and dry before you start cutting.

Using a clean brush that is only used for food purposes brush a tiny amount of water onto the cookie and then adhere the fondant gently rolling on with a small rolling pin. #

Using a clean foodsafe stamp press into the middle of each cookie to make a pretty indentation.

Mix up a little royal icing, I just used the powdered ready mix packet stuff for this and I added a little white white Wilton food colour. Pop it into a bag or disposable glad zip lock with a #2 tip and dot little decorations around the cookie. If you don't have a tip you could cut a really really tiny hole at the corner of the zip lock bag.



Add edible silver balls or other decorations as you like.


#Fondant dries out pretty quickly so I work with a little fondant at a time covering one cookie. The remaining fondant I leave wrapped in a little cling wrap/ glad wrap until I need it.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

114 grams unsalted butter (1 stick or 4 ounces) softened to room temperature
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 extra large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon plain flour sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Using a mixer cream butter and sugar.

Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix until dough comes together.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 30 mins.

Roll out dough to approx 7mm thick, cut out cookie shapes and chill for another 30 mins on trays. Bake at oven preheated to 180 C (350 f) for 10 to 15 mins depending on cookie size.