Pretzel, Peanut and Chocolate Packed Cookies

These could also be called ‘Blokes Biscuits’, they came about after I wasn’t sure what to bake and started quizzing Shane about what he felt like. The saltiness of the pretzels with the sweetness of the cookie and chocolate is awesome. The broken pretzel bits and peanuts give pops of crunch to the cookie. For the cookie base I used our awesome Chocolate Chip recipe, so if your not feeling as adventurous you should give those a go if you haven’t already!

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1½ cup dark chocolate drops
1 cup mini pretzel twists (I didn’t crush mine as they broke nicely in the mixer)
½ cup unsalted peanuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 180˚C.  Grease a couple of oven trays.
Beat butter, vanilla extract, sugars and egg in the bowl of your electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Fold in the sifted flour and baking soda on a low speed. 
Fold in the chocolate, pretzels and peanuts on a low speed.
Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls, place about 5cm apart on the trays.  Bake for 10-12 minutes depending how crispy you want your cookies. 
Leave to cool slightly on the tray before transferring to a wire rack, if you want to decorate the top of your cookie with a pretzel press it into the top of your cookie while it is soft and warm.

Single Serve Cookie

It’s winter, some nights it’s just so cold and miserable that you crave comfort food but you don’t have the time (or can’t be bothered leaving your warm comfy spot on the couch) to make and then wait for something like a delicious batch of cookies to bake.  What if I told you that I had a solution? That you could be enjoying warm delicious cookie in under three minutes!?  This recipe is for a single serve cookie that you make in the microwave.  I hope you enjoy this little treat for one as much as me!  I have to thank Facebook for this idea, there was a picture with a recipe similar to below floating around but no instructions so I had a little play and this is what I came up with…

Ingredients:
25 grams of butter, melted
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
pinch of salt
⅛ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
¼ cup flour
2 tablespoons of chocolate drops

Method:
Melt butter in ramekin (bowl or cup).
Add sugars, salt, vanilla, egg yolk and flour to melted butter and combine using a large spoon.
Stir the chocolate drops through evenly.
Place ramekin in the microwave for 50 seconds.  Check it, then continue cooking and checking for up to 1 minute 20 seconds depending on wattage (I did mine for 1 minute 10 seconds in a 1000W microwave).
Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before digging in!

It’s that easy and so, so quick!  I think this would also be fabulous with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a delectable dessert, go on – spoil yourself, I know you want to.  Remember if you try this or any of our other yummy recipes you can leave a comment and let us know what you think.  We also love to see your photos – you can email them to bmtbblog@gmail.com or facebook us.

Mere’s Chocolate Chip Blondies

These are delicious! I had attempted Blondies once before (a couple of years ago) but they were nowhere near as scrummy as these and I had gone back to the dark side (brownies) – however, these have converted me!  I got the recipe from Meredith – one of the many lovely Mum’s I have met through an online forum set up during my pregnancy with Max.  Not only has it been a fantastic place to ask questions about things little Max is doing/not doing, but it has been awesome for recipe sharing as well.  The Milo Biscuits and Cheesecake Brownie Swirls came from ladies in the same forum.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (I used ½ a cup of milk chocolate drops and ½ a cup white chocolate drops).

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 20x20cm tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
Beat in salt, egg and vanilla extract until well combined.
Add in flour, baking powder and choc chips and stir until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.
Pour dough – it will be thick – into prepared baking dish and smooth it into an even layer.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until set and the edges are just very lightly browned.
Cool in the pan before slicing.

For Snickerdoodle Blondies, leave out choc chips and mix together 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, then sprinkle over dough before baking.

I can vouch for the ‘Snickerdoodle Blondies’ deliciousness as I had morning tea at Meredith’s house today and they were fantastic, as were the lemon cupcakes with meringue frosting she made! She has also shared her recipe for tequila cupcakes with me – so look out for that as we head into the warmer months.

One of  Mere’s gorgeous cupcakes! I am definitely going to be giving meringue frosting a go soon.

Thank you Meredith!