Our holiday Plunket group catch ups are an eagerly anticipated part of our social calendar. We try not to talk about it too much in advance because Little Miss 4 can't help herself but formulate elaborate plans about how she will entertain her friends and what we will serve them. This time around, having lacked small company over the holidays, we had to keep reminding her that it was not her birthday, so we were not to get too carried away with the activity planning.
Having recently dined at Harlequin Public House, LM4 was obsessed with the '10 minutes with the cookie jar' dessert, so we re-created it for our buddies - minus the stop watch of course. Here is a little exposé of what we served our Plunket buddies: the recipes are hyperlinked to the original blog posts.
The Cookie Jar, with Afghans, Shortbread and Chocolate Chip Cookies. LM4 was so excited about loading up the cookie jar.
Quite a lot of biscuit baking happening that morning.
Sticky Lemon Slice Its always a crowd favourite!
Passion fruit Cupcakes with Raspberry butter cream. To make the raspberry butter cream I just added 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam to the butter cream at the end of the mixing process.
Here is the Chocolate Chip Biscuit Recipe:
100g butter
75g sugar
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 175deg. C
Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder. Lastly fold in the chocolate chips. Form into biscuit shapes by either rolling into small balls and flattening or, as I have done, using a soup spoon to press the mixture into a biscuit shape. Place the biscuits onto a lined tray and bake for about 10 minutes. The biscuits will be soft until they cool, so best to leave them on the tray.
I'm not sure where the last (almost) 5 years has gone, but our little Plunket group has grown and flourished; little brothers and cousins have swelled the numbers, and now school days loom for our darling babies. Some of us have gone back to work and others stayed at home, but we are all united by the sharing of our journey into motherhood.
What a great weekend. What's not to like about an extra day at home with the family. Last week was one of my busiest of the year, with the hosting of our Faculties great Fashion Show. I actually made these last weekend while we were at Mum and Dad's, but haven't had time to blog it before now.
It's a busy time of year at the farm; lambing is drawing to a close and they are just about to start tailing. A good time to top up the cake tins. I adapted a recipe from the newspaper, taking out the eggs and nuts so it's suitable for one of Little Miss 4's swimming buddies who has food allergies.
Spicy Oatmeal & Brown Sugar Biscuits
180g butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C. and line a couple of baking sheets.
Melt the butter, add the brown sugar and stir.
Add the baking soda to the warmed milk, and blend it into the butter and sugar mix. Add the vanilla.
Sift the flour and spices together into a large bowl.
Place the rolled oats into a large food processor and blend until finely ground.
Add them to the flour with the chopped dried apricots and chocolate chips.
Mix well and make a well in the centre.
Add the butter mix and stir to combine.
Put tablespoon lots onto the lined tray and flatten a little.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Makes about 36 large biscuits.
I think you'll like them Willow. The exact quantity of chocolate is up to you!
Hope you've all had a lovely relaxing weekend. I've had a couple of great 'crafternoon' sessions, so keep an eye out for some new and crafty posts this week.
