Chewy Choc chip Cookies

I set out on a hunt to discover the recipe for the best Choc chip cookie. Not just the best, I am talking THE best. And now, after I thought the hunt would be a never ending one, and after batches and batches, some worthy, some absolutely rubbish, some like shortbread, some like little cakes, some only eaten out of sheer boredom, the hunt is complete. The cookie has been found. And the magical ingredient....condensed milk.

What can i say, these cookies are amazing, their thick but not cakey, their thin but not crispy they are like pigs in the middle. They are chewy. They dont spread like rabbits across the fields, they dont 'not spread' like i wish my savings account would. Their absolutely marvelous and until 'Wonkervision' is real and i can send you one, fresh from the oven, through the screen of your computer with a glass of cold milk, you will just have to bake a batch for yourself. Trust me, you'll be speechless (and not because you have just stuffed three in your mouth).

Ingredients:
180 butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1.5 cups Self raising Flour
250g block of chocolate cut into chunks
(you can add nuts if you want)

Beat butter and sugar until creamy, then beat in the condensed milk. Add flour, stir until combined. Add choc chunks, mix well. Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, place on greased oven trays or lined with baking paper, press gently with fork. Bake 10 min or until golden at 180 degrees. sooo good, try and resist eating until they have cooled at least enough for you to handle them.

Sticky date pudding with warm toffee sauce and whipped cream

Winter is such a comfort food time in Melbourne and what better way to fill that warmth craving in our slowly widening waists than with a good pudding. Sticky date pudding is all the go in the Australian colder months, the stickier the better. Its the ultimate winter warmer dessert and a sure hit with everyone, in fact rarely have i come across someone who doesnt like it. One warm comforting mouthful as the sauce runs down your throat like a gentle liquid streamand im hooked. Served with whipped cream or cold ice cream, this pudding is beyond compare, I could easily gain a compulsive eating disorder with this, its hard to stop once begun. Your guests will be drooling at the mouth once you mention that you are making this dish for desert and wait till they try how good this variation is. Once eaten, never forgotten, a tasteful memory worth those extra kilos to the hips.

There really are so many different versions out there, all quiet similar but with slight variations, especially in the amount of butter used which can make it taste all the better but can sometimes I believe be unneccesary. In this case, it was necessary. I tested a few recipes out but the ones with more butter seemed that bit better, that bit more caramelly, stickier and satisfying and I found this to be the best recipe, taken from a canadian gourmet magazine. This quantity is for a big slice tin of pudding with enough sauce to cover it all and will last a family of four, as piggy as mine, a couple of nights or a dinner party of 6-8 quiet generously. However, I generally halve this quantity.

Ingrediants:
For pudding
1 3/4 cups packed pitted dates
1 cup water
1 cup orange juice
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
(6 tablespoons) unsalted butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For sauce
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F and butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan (2 inches deep), knocking out excess flour.
2.Coarsely chop and in a saucepan simmer dates in water and orange juice, uncovered, 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda. (Mixture will foam.) Let mixture stand 20 minutes.
3. While mixture is standing, into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt.
4. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, beating after each addition until just combined. Add date mixture and with a wooden spoon stir batter until just combined well.
6. Pour batter into baking pan and set pan in a larger baking pan. Add enough hot water to larger pan to reach halfway up sides of smaller pan and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 1 hour. Remove smaller pan from water bath and cool pudding to warm on a rack.

Make sauce while pudding is cooling:
In a heavy saucepan melt butter over moderate heat and add brown sugar. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, and stir in cream and vanilla. Simmer sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. Cool sauce to warm.
Cut warm pudding into triangles, poke holes in pieces with a fork. Serve with thick cream and warm sauce which will drizzle into the holes in the pudding and become moist and sticky.

Warm Orange Pikelets with butter and 100's & 1000's

So here i was, all set to blog my little obsessed heart out and continue on my neverending search this weekend and what happens...ive got the flu. Damn you winter months of melbourne. So, no extreme baking this weekend, my tastebuds are officially on strike and are only seeming to settle for vegemite and salty greasy potato chips. However, just to fill my day, i decided to whip up a batch of orange pikelets with hundreds and thousands. I dont know why i did it, i took one bite of the first one and threw it in the bin but at least it gave me something to do and of course the smell of them drew in the rest of the family who gobbled them up quick smart, they are after all a fantastic recipe passed on from my nanna to my mother and now to me. Drop em on the frypan, watch em rise and turn golden and coat em with organic butter and hundreds and thousands. Eat immediatly. Yum and your kids will think your a god, but i think for now ill just settle for my pack of soothers.

Ingrediants:
1cup self raising flour
4tbsp sugar
pinch salt
1tsp bi carb
2 eggs
1/2cup milk
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Method:
Combine all ingrediants, fry spoonfulls as you would for normal pikelets and then serve warm with butter and hundreds and thousands.

THE scones with Jam and Cream

I am about to let you in on the biggest secret I have. Thats right, I have discovered THE recipe for scones with Jam and Cream. I know what you all are thinking, how everyone raves that they have the best concotion to create the greatest scones, but, after 26 months of scone hunting and 26 months of reading and testing all their crappy recipes, I think I have a right to claim this and I have found THE BEST!!

It was in fact the scones that led me on this whole foodie hunt blog in the beginning. They were my first ever hunt and now that ive found the treasure, the pot of scone gold at the end of the rainbow, i want to find the gold of everything!

I had always enjoyed a good scone but knew they could be better than the spongy cakes i had tried. And, i was right, this sacred recipe delivers crunchy crust and soft scone interior and they wont give your teeth that strange floury taste. The recipe is the result of my own researching and testing based along the guidelines of a recipe passed onto me by a woman who works in counselling. Every afternoon before counselling services they would have warm scones and a cuppa.

No, she didnt give it to me while i was being counselled by her, i am perfectly sane, she is just a friend.

Just thinking about them is making my mouth water. Served warm with homemade fresh and sweet raspberry jam (the quality of jam is very important, there is no point whatsoever in making these if your going to eat them with cottees strawberry jam which is more like watery jelly really) and a thick dollop of fresh whipped cream, these babys have caused me to gain a considerable amount of puppy fat.

Risking sounding like every other scone recipe out there, try these, because mate you will not be disapointed I PROMISE.

FRESHLY BAKED SCONES WITH RASPBERRY JAM AND THICK CREAM

Important pieces of information you must soak up before beginning:

In order for the scones to have a crispy outer, you have three options.
1. A pizza stone which is what I use, can be purchased from a kitchen supplies store for around 10 bucks ( in fact i have even seen them advertised in the catalogue for the reject shop) These stones are the best investment you will ever make, they bring scones and homemade pizzas to a whole new level.
2. When we were renovating our home and were without a kitchen, I learnt how fantastic the BBQ is for cooking, I swear you can cook just about anything on those things! (of course im talking a BBQ with a big pulldown lid thingy, not just an average hotplate, you need the whole oven thing happening) So, you can place your scones in foil and put them straight on the hot plate.
3. Or, Build yourself a massive woodoven in your backyard, this is the ultimate although only worth the trouble if your a serious scone cooker haha.

Dont knead or play with the dough too much, you dont need to know why, just dont do it! DO NOT roll the dough out with a rolling pin, just pull it out a bit with your hands.

Make sure the oven has been preheated and HOT so that when entering, the scones get a great surprise and theyll PUFF up!!

Good luck!

Ingrediants:
2 cups Self Raising Flour or 2 cups plain flour with 4tsp baking powder
30g Butter
3/4cup milk with a squeeze of lemon in it
sprinkle of sugar

Method:
1. Lightly sieve or if too lazy like me, just put flour and powder in a bowl. Rub in butter till the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add a sprinkle of sugar and also optional, some like to add some finely grated lemon zest which they think adds a freshness to the scones, i dont but try it if you like.
2. Add milk with lemon in it and combine with your hand till just combined and mix is soft. Turn onto a floured board, pat out to about 1.5 inches thick, do not roll out, do not knead. Cut into rounds using a twisting motion with the cutter.
3. Place on preheated pizza stone in a hot preheated oven with sides of scones only just touching that way the sides will be crisp also. Glaze the tops with a little milk. Bake in a very hot oven 220 degrees for 12-15mins till golden. Serve warm with homemade jam (remember the quality of jam is so important i can not stress to you anymore this vital point) and fresh whipped cream....oh they are so good!

Welcome one and all to the greatest hunt of all time. Everyday i am searching for the best of everything. I am glad you could join me for the ride. Its important you remain in the vehicle at all times, tighten your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, the hunt begins...