Free shipping on orders over $129
May 31, 2022
All Choc-oholics rejoice! This delectable recipe is sure to indulge all chocolate cravings, as well as impressing whoever you are making it for. Want to take it to the next level? Use a Dough Cuts heart cookie cake template!
April 28, 2022
March 01, 2022
June 19, 2020
Ingredients
Preparation: 1 hour
Cook: 30 minutes
Extra Time: 2 hours
Gingerbread
3 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
185g chopped butter
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup pure icing sugar
Royal Icing
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
3 cups pure icing sugar
Vanillin Sugar, for dusting
Lollies or small toys for inside of house
30cm round or square cake board
Gingerbread House Cookie Cutters
Cake pins
Method
Gingerbread
1. Preheat oven 180 degrees C.
2. Combine flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, sugar and butter in a food processor. Process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Whisk golden syrup and eggs together in a jug. With the motor running, add egg mixture and process until dough just comes together.
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth. Cut dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap.
5. Meanwhile, prepare gingerbread house cookie cutters and line baking trays with baking paper.
6. Roll dough, 1 portion at a time, between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Remove top layer of baking paper. Using the Gingerbread House Cookie Cutters, cut the shapes from the dough.
7. Re-knead and re-roll dough as needed to cut shapes from dough.
8. Place gingerbread in single layers on trays. Bake 2 trays at a time for approx. 15 minutes or until firm.
9. Cool on trays.
Royal Icing
1. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add icing sugar, beating constantly until thick.
2. Using a knife, spread icing to join wall edges together. Start with a front and side wall, placing pins into adjoining wall edges to support joins until icing dries.
3. You should have an empty house without a roof. Fill inside of house with lollies or small toys if house feels strong and dry enough.
4. Use icing to attach roof to walls, using pins into adjoining walls to support until icing dries completely. Remove pins only when house is solid and dried.
5. Spoon 1/2 cup of remaining icing into a piping bag. Pipe windows and doors on house and frost on roof edges. Allow to dry.
6. Dust roof with Vanillin sugar.
TIPS
This cute gingerbread house will last up to 1 week. Best made a couple of days before Christmas and when children are around so they can crack it open to find all the goodies inside. Also a great gift idea.
May 31, 2020
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
7-8 slices fruit brioche
60g butter, room temperature
900g tub double thick vanilla custard
125ml milk
1 tbs caster sugar
1 medium green apple, thinly sliced
Icing sugar, to dust
160ml caramel sauce
Thickened cream, to serve
Method
March 04, 2017
Like something more savoury than sweet when the hunger pangs hit and all you can see is chocolate at Easter time? Then look no further than these Cheesy Bunny Crackers this Easter. A great edition to jazz up a platter and seriously fab on their own. You won't be able to stop at one that's for sure so you might want to cook a double batch straight up!
I used currants to decorate my little cheesy bunnies and I love how chewy and sweet the little currants are after being cooked. YUM! Writing about this is making me hungry for more. Miss 3 helped me make them and decorate them oh and also eat them. We will be making these again for Easter for sure.
The below recipe for Cheesy Bunny Biscuits is based on the recipe from Louise Fulton Keat's website and you can check it out here. These delicious cheese crackers remind me a lot of a childhood favourite of mine, good ol' Cheds.
1¼ cups (175g) plain flour
¾ cup (60g) grated parmesan
½ cup (60g) grated cheddar
½ teaspoon paprika
125g butter, cut into cubes
½ - 1 tablespoon cold water
Sultanas, cut in half, or currants for decorating (to make eyes - optional)
Sesame seeds to decorate the tail and body (optional)
Place the flour, cheeses and paprika in the bowl of a food processor and whiz for a few seconds just until mixed. Add the butter cubes and ½ TBS water and process, turning on and off frequently, until the mixture starts to ball around the blade. If the mixture is a bit dry add another ½ TBS water and pulse again.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead very lightly. Halve the mixture and roll out to 5 or 6mm thickness between 2 sheets of baking paper. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Cut out shapes with a bunny-shaped biscuit cutter and place on the prepared trays. You can re-roll and chill the leftover dough and repeat the cutting process until you have used it all. Pop on the sultanas or currants on to make eyes and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for about 8 minutes, until lightly golden and crisp. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a week (they won't last that long!).
Both of the cutters I used to create these bunny crackers are below.
Our mini rabbit cookie cutter is the perfect size for some bite sized super cute treats.
And the star of the cheesy cookie show is our baby rabbit cookie cutter. Not such a baby in size at 7cm wide. Perfect size for crackers!
February 06, 2017
STAINED GLASS WINDOW COOKIES
Just in time for Valentine's Day.
INGREDIENTS
125 grams butter
150 grams caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
300 grams plain flour
1 TBS water
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the water and then flour and mix until the dough comes together. Knead dough lightly on bench until you have a smooth dough. If it is not coming together easily add a little more water. If it is too sticky use a little more flour on your bench to knead the dough.
THERMOMIX:
Pop all ingredients in and mix on speed 5 for 30 seconds.
Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper (or silicone mats) to between 3-4mm thick (the thinner you roll them the more crisp the cookies with be when cooked) and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Cut out the cookie shapes and transfer them to a cookie sheet lined with baking paper. Pop in the fridge to chill while you prepare the lollies.
Carefully sprinkle some of the crushed lollies inside the cookie cutouts. I found the more lollies that were in there the better but be careful not to spill too much onto the sides of the cutouts as they will seep in a bit. They will still look great though! Patience is key at this point.
Bake in preheated oven at about 160 degrees celcius for approximately 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. Leave them to cool on the baking sheet so the lolly centres can set properly.
These were really easy to make. The only thing I would do differently next time is to add more crushed lollies into the cutouts as the ones with more in them came out much nicer.
Happy baking!
November 18, 2016
My daughter Emmy and I had fun this week practicing some Christmas baking. We used Donna Hay's chocolate cookie dough recipe and our 10.5cm deer with antlers cookie cutter.
The reindeer cookie cutter has quite detailed small features in the antlers and also embossed leg details. I found the key to cutting these cookies out was rolling the dough to about 4mm thick and CHILL IT. Chilling it made all the difference. Explaining to Emmy (who's 3) that we had to wait for the dough to be cold enough was the hardest part! Next time I will make the dough the night before, roll it out and chill in the fridge overnight between two sheets of baking paper.
I used a toothpick to help ease out the tricky parts of the cookies and the rest of the cookie came away easily. I also chilled in between each re-rolling of the dough and the longer it chilled the easier it was to work with.
Bake the cookies at 160 degrees celcius for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and wait 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
We melted some dark chocolate in the microwave and dipped the reindeer legs in, popped onto baking paper and sprinkled with sea salt flakes. Cute and delicious!
We also made mini 3D gingerbread houses with the same dough and topped them with melted chocolate and salt flakes. Salted chocolate mini houses! Yum!
Happy baking!
Lisa & Emmy x
August 30, 2015
I was looking for a Halloween cookie recipe recently and nothing was really jumping out at me other than the beautifully iced cookies that were way out of my league! I wanted something with a Halloween theme without being overly ghoulish as I had my two year old assistant to consider. Without being able to find exactly what I wanted to make I had the idea of using something I saw in last years Donna Hay Celebrate issue for Christmas and just changing the cookie cutters used to be Halloween themed. Voila! Beautiful Halloween cookies that look and taste delicious and I don't have to explain any creepiness to my little one. When she saw the finished product she thought they were "Incy Wincy Spider" and Max the cat (our cat is called Max) cookies. So sweet. Make sure you bake the cutouts also they are tasty little bite sized gems.
For even more of a Halloween twist these cookies would look awesome with a coffin, tombstone of spider web as the cookie shape instead of the square.
Here's my attempt at these cookies. I am sure with a bit of practise I can get them looking pretty darn good by Halloween. The recipe is below also.
Ready for the oven:
Out of the oven:
The finished product (with a bit more practice and a little less assistance from miss 2 I am sure they will look much neater!):
Don't forget the cut-outs:
Donna Hay's Jam Cookie Sandwiches Recipe:
125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour, sifted
Topping:
Icing sugar for dusting
110g raspberry jam
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6-8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a further 2-3 minutes or until well combined. Add the flour and beat until the mixture just comes together to form a smooth dough. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to 3mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Using a 6cm fluted square cutter, cut out 24 shapes from the dough. Using mini cookie cutters of your choice (I used a bat, spider, ghost and scary cat) cut shapes from the centre of half the squares, reserving the cut-outs. Place the squares and reserved cut-outs on 2 large lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust the cut out squares and cut-outs with icing sugar. Spread the plain squares with jam and sandwich with the cut out squares. Makes 12.
July 30, 2015
How long has it been since Christmas?? It is much closer to next Christmas than last and I have only just made Donna Hay's Spiced Vanilla Reindeers from last year's donna hay celebrate magazine. Better late than never hey! If you read my blog you might remember how excited I was when they used our baby deer cookie cutter to make these gorgeous cookies. I made one slight change to the recipe and substituted the flour with wholemeal spelt flour. The little reindeer's legs are quite fine so the chilling of the dough is essential to be able to cut them out neatly.
Here's my attempt!
Donna Hay's Spiced Reindeers Recipe:
125g unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (225g) plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Icing:
½ cup (80g) icing sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons boiling water
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 6-8 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a further 2-3 minutes or until well combined. Add the flour, cinnamon and mixed spice and beat until the mixture just comes together to form a smooth dough. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to 5mm thick and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Using a 7cm deer shaped cookie cutter, cut out 32 shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Place on 2 large lightly greased baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. For the icing, mix to combine the icing sugar and water until smooth. Place in a piping bag fitted with a 2mm nozzle and pipe a nose and three tail spots on each cookie to decorate. Makes 32.
Delicious served with a piping hot cup of tea! YUMMY!