Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies: Week Two

The second week of twelve weeks of Christmas cookies is here already.  This should have been posted on Thursday but Thursdays aren't a great day for me as I put in a 12 hour shift at work so I shall be posting my contributions on Fridays or Saturdays.

I have no idea where I got the idea for this weeks cookie; I think I glanced at something chocolate and ginger and thought....hey! that would make a good combination.  Only good if you like chocolate and ginger of course. I happen to like ginger.  The flavour of it isn't too strong at all really, it just gives the cookie a spicy kind of warmth to it without being overpowering.  You will also notice that I used almond flour rather than wheat flour like I did with the last recipe.

I'm on an almond flour kick at the moment, I don't know why.  I'm using the hell out of my food processor these days and it's so easy to make.  I've decided I'm going to try and make a lot of my contributions out of almond flour.

If you're on a low carb diet, these cookies are acceptable as a treat with a fraction of the carbs in a normal cookie.  If you're on a low fat diet, however, you had better stay clear.  With the butter, fat from the almonds and coconut, they're pretty much half their weight in fat per cookie. If you don't give a stuff, go right ahead and make them! Haha!

Chocolate Ginger Cookies

125g butter

2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1/2 cup fine coconut

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup fine sugar

70g crystallised ginger

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.  Melt butter in a saucepan and add cocoa.  Mix with a spoon till it is gently bubbling.  Add vanilla extract.  Set aside.

In a bowl, add almond flour, coconut, baking powder, ground ginger and sugar.  Mix well with a spoon.  Pour melted chocolate butter over mixture and mix well.  Finally, fold in crystallised ginger.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper.  Form tablespoon-sized balls with your hands and flatten slightly on the baking sheet.  Place in the oven for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Makes about 20.

Check out the other goodies:

Twelve Weeks Of Christmas Cookies: Week Eight

I promise this is my last installment of Christmas Truffles.  To recap, on week six I made a traditional Christmas truffle made from a ganache.  On week seven I made a Christmas truffle from New Zealand's favourite cookbook "Edmonds Cookery Book".  This week is a healthy twist on truffles.  It's made with dates, nuts, oats and spices.  It was inspired by The Vegan Table and Oh She Glows.

Do you have a friend that is a health freak but also enjoys their sweets?  These truffles would make the perfect gift!  That is if there is enough left after you've sampled them *wink*

Christmas Truffles (The Healthy Version)

1 1/2 cups almonds

30 dates, soaked in hot water*

1/2 cup oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp sea salt

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

For decorating

shredded coconut

cocoa powder

sesame seeds

*I used dried dates, but if you use Medjool dates, then only use 20 and do not soak in water.

Place oats and almonds into a food processor and process until fine.  Add in dates (drained from water), cinnamon, nutmeg, salt & cocoa and process until it forms a ball or has formed a consistency to form small balls when rolled.  Using your hands, roll mixture into small balls and then roll into coconut, cocoa powder or sesame seeds.  You can use other decorations if you wish but remember to use something healthy (or else it will ruin the name ha-ha!).  Place in refrigerator to chill and harden.  These should keep for quite a while!

Week 8 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

Twelve Weeks Of Christmas "Cookies": Week Seven

The Edmond's Cookbook is a Kiwi icon. It was the only cookbook in my mother's house and I used to stare at the pictures of the party cakes all the time. Something about the pretty cakes, happy children's faces and  the variety of goodies in the picture made me dream a little as a kid.   The edition I have has different pictures now though. It is sold in pretty much all bookstores under the cookery section and it is also sold in most supermarkets, not in the book section but in the bakery section.

It says:

"The essential cook book for very kitchen, the Edmonds Cookery Book enables the user to cook with confidence and pride. With over 3 million copies sold to date the Edmonds Cookery Book is the biggest selling cook book in New Zealand's history"

Now the reason I'm telling you all this is because my recipe this week comes straight out of the Edmonds Cookery Book. I mentioned last week that I found several ways to make truffles and this one was the first recipe for truffles I had known. I remember making this recipe for the first time about 15 years ago on Christmas Eve for the family so we go way back.

Honestly, I like the truffles from this recipe better than the recipe from last week. They are a lot sweeter, but have a more chocolate fudge taste which definitely has more mainstream appeal.

Without further ado....

Chocolate Truffles 

(part deux)

50g butter

100g dark chocolate

1 cup icing/confectioners sugar

1 Tbsp rum

1 tsp cocoa

coconut

chocolate sprinkles

Put butter and chocolate into a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring until butter and chocolate have melted. Add 1/2 cup of the icing sugar. Stir until mixture is thick enough to handle. Stir in rum and coca. Add enough of the remaining icing sugar to make a stiff mixture. Shape mixture into balls. Roll in coconut and chocolate hale. Chill until firm. Makes about 15

Stay tuned next week on Week Eight for yet another version of Christmas Truffles from me.  This one is a healthy version and will definitely be a bit of an experiment for me as I've never made anything like it before!

Check out what everyone else made this week!

Twelve Weeks of Christmas "Cookies": Week Six

I steered away from a Christmas Cookie recipe this week and instead opted for a Christmas treat that can also be given as a gift: Truffles.  There are several ways to make Christmas truffles, the traditional method seems to be just a simple mixture of cream and dark chocolate with perhaps some flavouring in it.  I've always known truffles to have some kind of alcohol flavouring in it, so that's what I went for.  It seems the best concoction comes from almost a 1:1 ratio of cream (in ml) to dark chocolate (in grams).  This recipe is a mixure of different recipes I researched on the web for this week.  I also decorated my truffles whereas the traditional presentation seems to be to roll them in chopped nuts, flaked chocolate or coconut. Any opportunity to make things pretty!

Christmas Truffles 

150ml heavy cream

200g dark chocolate (70%)

20g unsalted butter

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp rum or brandy

 

Place cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Add vanilla extract, stir then take off heat and let cool slightly.  Heat chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until melted.  Beat in unsalted butter and rum until smooth.  Add cream mixture and beat until smooth.  Place bowl in the refrigerator for several hours until chocolate mixture is firm, but not rock solid.  Form into small balls and decorate or roll in nuts, or coconut.  Keeps in the fridge for about a week.

Check out what everyone else made this week!

Twelve Weeks Of Christmas Cookies: Week Three

Another chocolate cookie recipe for me this week. No surprise in the middle this time, just a chocolate cookie with a twist: a chili twist! Sounds a bit weird but I promise you it's good. What better way to warm up around the Christmas tree than indulging in a cookie hidden with a warming spice like chili? This recipe was inspired by a couple of things. I had never heard of chili and chocolate together until I moved to Australia and worked next to a gourmet sweet store. They used to sell an array of gourmet chocolates, one of which was a little chocolate infused with chili flavour. My work mate used to absolutely love this chocolate; I used to turn my nose up at it until she made me sample it one day. Wow.... wonderful! 

Source

The second thing that inspired me was Lindt's new chili chocolate. It's not exactly new new, but it came out a couple of years ago here and it's probably one of the only chocolate bars I buy regularly.

Source

Anyway, enough chatting...onto the recipe!

Chili Chocolate Cookies

2 cups of flour

2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
50g dark chocolate

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp* chili

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

a few Tbsp sugar

red food colouring

*You can use anywhere from 1/2 tsp for a slightly warming flavour to 1 tsp for a definite chili finish.  I wouldn't go below 1/2 tsp though

Method

Preheat oven to 350F

Prepare decorating sugar by placing a few tablespoons of white sugar in a small bowl and adding a few drops of red food colouring. Mix until it is evenly distrubuted.

In a clean bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Crack in the egg and add vanilla extract then beat until smooth. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl and mix until well combined. Add dry ingredients to butter and sugar mixture and combine with a metal spoon. Shape the dough into balls approx 1.5-2" diameter.

Smear a dab of butter all over the bottom of a glass, then dip the glass in the red sugar. Use the glass to flatten each ball of dough slightly, dipping again into the sugar each time.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool.

 Voila!

Here's what everyone else got up to in the kitchen this week, for Week Three:

Twelve Weeks Of Christmas Cookies: Week Two

Chocolate Cherry Surprise Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

15* glace cherries

Method

Preheat oven to 350F

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat again until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat in until combine. 

Sift all dry ingredients into a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the sugar and butter mixture and mix with a metal spoon. The next part is the messy part; using a spoon, put a small blob of the chocolate batter between your fingers and flatten slightly. With your thumb, make a small hollow and place one cherry in the hollow. Using your fingers, gather up the sides of the batter around the cherry, then cover the cherry with extra batter. Roll the batter between your palms to make a smooth ball then place on a non stick baking sheet. Repeat until all your batter is gone.

Place in the oven and bake for 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before dusting with powdered sugar.

I love the pattern the powdered sugar leaves behind

*Approximately. The above mixture made 15 cookies for me, but depending on how large you make the balls you may need more or less. I had both green and red glace cherries, but I only used the red ones this time. For an extra Christmas-y feel, use both the green and red cherries: the Christmas colours.

I didn't make a frosting for this cookie because I didn't think it really needed it.  The glace cherry in the center made it sweet enough.  I was toying with the idea of a chocolate brandy frosting, but decided to leave it as is.

After Work Report:  I came home from work today after leaving the cookies in the bread bin and they had almost all been eaten!  My husband left me two out of the fourteen that I left there.  They must have been very good :-P

Here's what everyone else made this week:

Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cookies: Week One

I've joined a baking group which is right up my alley: 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies.  Yes folks, it's just over 12 weeks till Christmas!  The deal is to bake whatever you wish for 12 weeks every Friday, starting from October 1st till 17th December.  Ideally what you bake will be Christmas themed, well, that's what I'm going to try and stick to anyway so watch out for all my Christmas serveware featuring in the photos!

My first attempt was a recipe I've been wanting to try for a while.  I almost made it one time, but I passed the name by my husband and he kinda crinkled his nose up at it, so I made something else that time instead. Today, I decided this was the cookie I was going to make.  The recipe looks very Christmas-y to me as it is loaded with spices. The end is a buttery, spicy, crumbly scrumptious cookie that just melts in your mouth.  Even though the name suggests it might be quite savoury, the taste of pepper is so sweet and delicate. Yum.

I present to you Spicy Pepper Cookies!

Spicy Pepper Cookies

225g butter at room temperature

90g soft brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp lemon rind

200g flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp ground black pepper

3/4 cup ground almonds

1/4 cup whipping cream

powdered sugar

Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together in a clean bowl. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add vanilla extract and lemon rind to butter and sugar mixture and combine.  Add a small amount of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar and mix until combined, then add a small amount of the whipping cream to the mixture and combine.  Repeat, alternating until both are finished, starting with the spiced flour and ending with the spiced flour.  Add in the ground almonds and mix till combined.  

Form small balls from the cookie batter and place on a non stick baking sheet.  Bake cookies at 350F for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on a baking rack for a couple of minutes before dusting with powdered sugar.  Makes about 20 cookies - dare I say 12g of fat each! Yikes!!

Week 1 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

Daisy vs. Innocent Christmas Present

Here's my bunny opening her Christmas gift. It was a bag of hay cubes from the pet store. I was having a bit of trouble keeping the camera steady because I was laughing. I was surprised at how crazy she went opening the gift...LOL

Idea For Next Christmas

I should have posted this before Christmas but I was so busy getting ready for Christmas that I didn't have time.

I thought I'd share something I made myself as a gift for my sister: An Evening Clutch, proudly hand made by moi!

Voila:

The gift was well received and she couldn't believe I actually made it.  I was happy.  Now, I consider myself a beginner so if I can make it, anyone with a bit of patience and careful sewing can make this.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my first attempt at this was a disaster.  I read the instructions and was like WTF this doesn't make sense!! so I decided to follow my own idea and it didn't work.

The best thing of all is that you can get this pattern free online!  Here's the link to it:
http://www.bhg.com/crafts/sewing/accessories/clutch-purse-with-antique-pin-closure/;jsessionid=1OCJDMGU3IQ1ACQCEAQSBHQ?page=1

I didn't follow the instructions exactly - I decided to leave the tab off and just use the flap as the closure instead.  I also bought a magnetic closure snap but I could not figure out how to sew it in (found out later once it was too late) so I just followed the pattern and used hook and loop tape.

I hope if you make this it turns out pretty!

I redecorated!

Yep, it's that time of year again.  One thing I do love is Christmas.  For those of you that HATE Christmas, don't worry I will change my blog template back to something "normal" once the Christmas season is over.  In the meantime you will just have to put up with it... (sorry!)

Merry Christmas!

Everyone!!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, I had a nice quiet one at home. I made roast pork, garlic roasted asparagus and red onion and potato gratin. We snacked on chocolates and fruit cocktails during the day.

I received a very nice an unexpected gift from my husband. A sewing machine!! I am very excited as I've wanted to learn (or re-learn) to sew for a while now. Today I went out and bought some cheap material to practice on and a pattern and good material to make a nice simple skirt. I hope it turns out okay. I shall show you the end result :-P My aim is to make my competition suit for next year among other things! Here it is:


I just got home tonight from dinner and some drinks. We went to this place called Outback Jacks and I did the 1kg rump steak challenge. You have to eat 1kg/2.2lbs (raw weight) rump steak, potato wedges and vegetables in under 30 minutes. With the potatoes and vegetables it ends up being 1.7kg of food. I was the first girl to do it The amount of food wasn't the hard part - I started to get sick of the taste of steak. It reminded me of the time I couldn't eat my tuna during comp prep because if I ate another bite I was gonna barf. I got close to that with the steak but I managed to eat it all.

I got a t-shirt from it too and it's a nice one My friend told me to wear it at the gym as there are heaps of guys there that tried it but couldn't do it LOL. Not sure if it's something to be proud of, but I got a half price meal and a t-shirt out of it so it's a score!

Tomorrow I'm off to the gym to get my 91kg/200lb bench press. Wish me luck. All that rump steak should make me strong.

Christmas Preparations

So this weekend was spent doing a little baking and getting the last of my Christmas presents and stuff I needed for Christmas. I think the only thing I have left to do is the buy the meat and a few other goodies and we're set. I went out an bought a few bottles of spirits for Christmas cocktails, it ends up getting very expensive. I don't tend to drink spirits very much so I don't have any "supply" at home.

No training this weekend. I should have gone yesterday but I gave it a miss as I was busy running around.

I will leave you with some pics of our Christmas tree. It's so cute!

2 Recipes

Not much is happening this week in the way of training. My deadlift meet is this weekend so I won't be training. I may get in a light upperbody workout, but nothing major.

I tried some new recipes today. First one was in preparation of Christmas - Hot Spiced Apple Cider. Even though it's sweltering here, I still like to sample the tastes of the season. In fact, most Christmas recipes aren't suited for hot weather! LOL...

Hot Spiced Apple Cider

2L apple juice
1 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. whole allspice
2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
1/4 c. lightly packed brown sugar
juice of 2 lemons

Bring ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan. Simmer 30 to 60 minutes. Remove spices. Serve hot in mugs. It tastes even better with whipped cream and caramel sauce on top!


Another snack I made today was Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip. I couldn't find any blue corn chips at the supermarket I went to, so I had it with baked corn chips and rice crackers instead.

Hot Spinach And Artichoke Dip

224 g cream cheese, softened
60 ml mayonnaise
25 g grated Parmesan cheese
30 g grated Romano cheese
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
80 g frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
30 g shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a small baking dish.

1. In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, garlic, basil, garlic salt, salt and pepper. Gently stir in artichoke hearts and spinach.
2. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Yum!

Today's News

I'm sitting here downloading Christmas Carols from iTUNES at the moment. I'm getting excited for Christmas! A lot of the songs are about how it's snowing and cold, and it's like hell here!! You walk outside and a heatwave hits you....LOL

Nothing to report today as far as training - I had a rest day today. I hope I'm not getting sick. At the moment I have a sore throat, sore ears, mild headache and achy body - definitely not what I need right now considering that meet is up next weekend!

I got my textbook today to start studying for my training certificate. Exciting! Watch out everyone

First Post!

Today marks my first day off my "offseason". I just finished a long stint of contest dieting for a bodybuilding contest. My goal this year was to surpass my condition from last year and have a good time and I achieved both, so I consider this year very successful. Unfortunately my contest season was cut short due to a tanning mishap but I think I have that all figured out for the future should I compete again.

I went to the supermarket today and it was the most glorious affair I have experienced for a while. I was actually a little disgusted by how happy grocery shopping made me. Although I don't really restrict food groups while dieting, being on a strict calorie allowance really restricts your choices sometimes. It was nice to just be able to get the stuff I had been missing: a variety of fruits, feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes in oil, whole grain rye bread, hummus, camembert
mixed dried fruit, greek yoghurt. I only bought one "bad" thing... the Christmas goodies are out for sale already so I got this packet of mini chocolate Christmas puddings. Okay, I did go back later and buy some of those pudding cup things and a Christmas Cookie (see below).

Now that I'm not dieting I definitely intend on honing my baking and cooking skills. I *love* trying out new recipes. Gordon Ramsay is one of my favourite people. He makes healthy, simple but yet tasty food. I'm quite intent on trying to make as much of my own food as possible to avoid those hidden preservatives and badness. Home made always tastes better anyway!

So anyway, if you're interested in heavy weights, good healthy food, beer and having a good time then stay tuned!