Cinnamon Pecan and Oat Cookies

A couple of weekends ago I took a trip to Martha’s Backyard (aka the American store) as I was told they had Hershey’s cinnamon chips in stock. I was also told that the cinnamon chips are fantastic in oat cookies. I whipped these up and was not disappointed!

Ingredients:
Makes approximately 40 cookies
225 grams butter, softened
⅓ cup sugar
1 cup light muscovado sugar (I used Billingtons)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups rolled oats
1⅔ cups of Hershey’s cinnamon chips
1 cup roughly chopped pecans

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper.
Beat butter and sugars in a bowl until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.
Sift flour and baking soda into the butter mixture, and beat together on a slow-medium speed until combined.
Stir in oats, cinnamon chips and pecans (batter will be stiff).
Drop heaped teaspoons onto your lined baking trays and bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden and starting to set.
Remove from the oven and transfer to wire racks after a couple of minutes to cool completely.

These are delicious as is but to change it up a little I dipped about a third of my cookies in some dark chocolate to make them extra indulgent!

Fudgey Chocolate Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

These were a request from a lovely new friend I’ve made since going back to work. I thought they were pretty yummy and they seemed to be well received by my colleagues who enjoyed snacking on them during a meeting. I wanted something really chocolatey for the cupcake base so used our Chocolate Mud Cake recipe, it isn’t as rich or dense in cupcake form but tastes delicious and is a little fudge like.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons good quality drinking cocoa
1 cup hot water
¼ cup fruit juice
200 grams dark cooking chocolate chopped
1½cups sugar
250 grams butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Buttercream:
150g butter softened
3-4 cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon cinnamon (more or less to taste)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 140˚C.  Grease and line x2 muffin/cupcake tins with 24 cases.
Put the dinking cocoa, hot water and juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Remove from the heat.
Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted.
Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved.  Allow to cool.
In a large bowl sift the flour and baking soda together then make a well in the centre.
Beat the eggs together with the vanilla essence and stir into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently to mix (I found I was getting clumps of flour so I beat it very gently with the electric beaters for under a minute as not to overwork the ingredients).
Fill cupcake cases to two thirds and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, they will bounce back once cooked and skewer can be removed cleanly.
To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. At this stage you can add in the cinnamon to taste.
Decorate as desired, I used a 1M tip to pipe mine and scattered gorgeous sugar pearls from The Pretty Baker to brighten them up so they weren’t boring beige, I also put a sprinkle of cinnamon on some of them.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Truffles

These truffles accompanied the more traditional cookie dough truffles to the American themed pot luck dinner we went to the other week. Mel stumbled across the idea here, and passed it on to me to adapt when she heard about the dinner. They look good huh?! Well, it gets better, they are hiding something from you… every truffle has a rolo in the middle, deliciously wicked!

Ingredients:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
100 grams butter, softened
⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons cream
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
24 Rolo chocolates
3 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon cinnamon

Method:
In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, ½ teaspoon cinnamon and salt, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter, brown sugar and ¼ cup sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Mix in cream and vanilla extract.
Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.
In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together second measures of sugar and cinnamon.
Scoop dough out one even tablespoon at a time, then press one Rolo  into the centre of each scoop of dough and roll into a ball.
Roll each dough ball into cinnamon sugar mixture. Chill or serve immediately.
Store Cookie Dough Bites in refrigerator. 

If you like these and haven’t tried the biscuits I suggest you give them a go or make this blondie – snickerdoodle style!

Doughnut Muffins

The last time I made these little beauties was about a month before Mel and I started blogging about our baking adventures.  I got so caught up in constantly baking something new that I almost forgot about them – I don’t know how, they are delicious!  I whipped these up to take to my friend Dahl who has just had a gorgeous baby girl (Congrats again Barry family xx) along with some mini potato, bacon and cheese frittatas.  Of course I had to keep a couple for Shane and I to taste test and photograph so I could share with you.  The recipe has been adapted by me from ‘The Muffin Bible’.

Ingredients:
1¾ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
⅓ cup canola oil
¾ cup raw sugar (can use the same amount of white sugar if you don’t have raw)
1 egg
¾ cup milk

Topping:
3 tablespoons butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a muffin tray with papers or spray with cooking oil to grease.
In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a separate bowl mix together oil, sugar, egg and milk.
Add oil mixture to the dry ingredients and combine gently as not to overwork the flour.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin tray and place in your preheated oven.  Bake for 15-20 minutes. You will know they are ready when they are golden and the centres bounce back when touched.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon for topping and prepare butter.
While muffins are still warm brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

I think these are best served warm like the doughnuts you can get from your local takeaway but they are still delicious once cool.  Another thing you can try with these (which I didn’t do in this batch) is filling the your muffin tin up with batter to just over half way and then placing a teaspoon of raspberry jam in the middle and then covering mix more muffin batter, this way when you open the muffin up it has a jam filling just like some doughnuts!  Cute huh?!  If you give the muffins a go leave us a comment or if you want to share a picture of them, especially if you give them a jam centre you can email us – bmtbblog@gmail.com or find us on facebook.

Cinnamon Pull-Apart Loaf

I saw a friend of mine pin this recipe on Pinterest the other week and had to add to my board of things to bake, the recipe I followed came from ‘Joy the Baker’ whose loaf was a little tidier looking than mine but I think the more rustic look works too. It made the perfect late brunch treat in our house this morning and the best part was that most of the hard work had been done the night before as the recipe allows you to make the dough and chill it in the fridge the overnight. The bread was so soft and fluffy and the cinnamony sugary goodness is comforting after a lazy Sunday morning sleep in.

To make this heavenly little treat yourself you will need:

Ingredients:
Dough
2 ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon salt
60 grams butter
⅓ cup milk
¼ cup water
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
50 grams butter, melted until browned

Method:
In a large mixing bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.  Set aside.
Whisk together eggs and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted.  Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract.  Let mixture stand for a couple of minutes.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon.  Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter.  The eggs will feel soupy and it’ll seem like the dough and the eggs are never going to come together.  Keep stirring. 
Add the remaining ¾ cup of flour and stir with the spatula for about 2 minutes.  The mixture will be sticky.  That’s just right.
Place the dough is a large,  greased bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel.  Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. ***The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning.  If you’re using this method, just let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.

While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for the filling. Set aside.  Melt the 50 grams of butter until browned.  Set aside.  Grease a 9x5x3-inch  loaf pan.  Set that aside too.
Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2 tablespoons of flour into the dough.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. 

On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out.  The dough should be 30cm tall and about 50cm long.  If you can’t get the dough to 50cm long… that’s okay.  Just roll it as large as the dough will go. 
Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter across all of the dough.  Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture.  It might seem like a lot of sugar but just do it!
Slice the dough vertically, into six equal-sized strips.  Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again.  You’ll have six stacks of six squares. 
Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book.  Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and allow in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 180°C.
Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. The top may be lightly browned, but the center may still be raw.  A nice, dark, golden brown will ensure that the center is cooked as well.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board.

Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the  upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up.  Serve warm with coffee or tea and if you feel like it you can make up some runny vanilla icing (icing sugar, water and a splash of vanilla essence) to drizzle over it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did this morning. I think that I will make it again for Easter  - that might give you the perfect excuse to make this as well.

Cinnamon Cupcakes

I made these for the high tea we had at Melissa and Simon’s a few weeks ago.  I also made mini versions at Christmas but hadn’t posted the recipe as I wasn’t able to get a photo to share with you until now!

To make you will need:
1 ½ cups of sifted flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
100 grams of butter, softened
¾ cup of brown sugar, packed
1 egg (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup of milk (room temperature)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in in a bowl. In a separate large bowl beat the butter, cinnamon and sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of milk. Beat lightly after each addition just enough to combine the ingredients.
Divide the batter between 12 medium cupcake papers so that each is ⅔ full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly. Cool completely before icing.
I recommend icing with a vanilla buttercream.

 

Cinnamon Scrolls

 
With less than two weeks to go until my baby should arrive I’ve had a craving for cinnamon so I whipped up a batch of Cinnamon Scrolls, nice and easy when you have a bread maker! I hunted around on the net for a recipe and just adjusted things to make my own.

Ingredients
½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
2 ¼ cups plain flour
1 egg
1 ½  tablespoons butter, softened
1 ¼ teaspoons yeast

Filling
3 Tbsp melted butter
¼ cup brown sugar (or slightly more to taste)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon white sugar

1. Place all the dry ingredients in the bread maker first and wet ingredients on top and set the machine to dough.  Allow it to mix and then rise for 30 mins in the machine.
2. Lightly dust a clean smooth surface with plain flour and roll out the dough, once rolled out dough should measure roughly about 35cm x 20cm, try to keep the dough as rectangular in shape as possible.
 
3. Brush the dough with melted butter and dust with cinnamon and sugars.


4. Roll the dough, starting from the bottom.
5. Once the dough has been rolled it should be cut into four and then four again.


6. Pieces (with smallest pieces in the middle) should be put into a pyrex dish which had been brushed with melted butter. If you have any melted butter left you can brush it over the scrolls lightly for a nice glossy finish.
 
7. Cover the pyrex dish with a clean tea towel and place somewhere warm (like the hot water cupboard) and allow the dough to rise for 30 mins.
 
8. Place in the oven at 180c for 20-30 mins (depending on your oven).


9. Remove from the dish, pulling apart scrolls and place on a cooling tray.
10. Scrolls can be served as is or if you choose you can drizzle some runny vanilla icing over them.

Enjoy! I did :-)