I simply adore my sweet afternoon treat. In fact ask my beau about the monster lara if I don’t get my mid afternoon snack or if dinner is late… its not pretty. So I bake to combat low blood sugar lara; I bake cookies, cakes and tarts almost weekly. I make up big batches of cookie dough and freeze it, just like Betty Crocker does. I bake cakes then slice and store in fridge, freezer and pantry. Tarts I keep fresh, but pastry being easier to make in big batches I line tart tins and freeze them uncooked. Pastries tend to cook better from frozen anyway, just remember to ‘dock’ them before you freeze them.
Docking pastry is just pricking it with a fork, or a ridiculously expensive wheely pastry docking tool.
The secret to a myriad of fantastic baked goods is three good recipes upon which you base alterations. I have what I call my yo-yo dough (or melting moments), a basic cake batter and a simple pastry crust. Truth be told the pastry crust is actually two recipes because what works for the top does not work for the base.
For other treats, such as when I want tollhouse cookies I take all the ingredients (a block of Lescure butter, whole packet of evaporated cane juice, bag of stoneground spelt flour and half dozen organic eggs) to my Brother and let him cook them without questioning the insane amount of fat and sugar going into them.
I developed my yo-yo recipe due to a trio of influences. Firstly when working in a kitchen with a fantastically gourmet lemon melting moment stash in the cupboard behind my work station. Coupled with sparkly water, they would get me through the afternoon. I left the place and found myself wanting.
At a quaint little art fair I purchased another brand of fan-absoloutely-tabulous cookies in a myriad of flavours. I spent almost $50 on cookies. A little excessive perhaps. My new job had yo-yo’s, however they were not good enough nor 'good enough for me' to justify eating.
Being lactose intolerant didn't help and those expensive cookies may have made me a little sick. So now working in a place with inedible (to me) yo-yo’s and no way to get through the afternoon, I decided to make my own.
And if I was going to make my own yo-yo’s, there would be NO compromise. No ‘sugar’, lots of healthy fats, lots of protein and effectively they would be a mini balanced meal. I would have my cookie, and eat it too, and maybe some cake as well.
So here it is, my yo-yo base recipe.
100 grams Lescure fluer de sel, or other quality butter*
200 mills organic apricot kernel oil, or macadamia/almond/olive
100 mills organic honey
zest of one un-waxed lemon
1 bean vanilla, seeds scraped
2-3 organic eggs (depending on size)
100g yellow corn flour
100g spelt/buckwheat* flour
100g millet/‘white’ stoneground* flour
Icing
2 parts coconut oil
1 part raw organic honey, preferably white clover
vanilla bean or essence, to taste
lemon zest, if desired
For the cookie dough: Cream the butter, oil and honey. Add the flavourings (zest and vanilla bean seeds) and then the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.
[Place the scraped bean into a jar or honey or real maple syrup, you can store rather a few in a jar and then use them in baking/cooking later. Meanwhile they don't dry out, and they flavour your honey/maple. You can even put them into a bottle of vodka/brandy and make your own vanilla essence or flavoured alcohol.]
Mix in the flours with a wooden spoon to form a stiff dough. Roll the dough into logs and wrap with plastic or place into a tub and refrigerate or freeze to rest and firm up.
When ready to bake: Remove the plastic and slice the dough into 1cm/.3” discs. Place about 3cm/1” apart on a lined oven tray. Use the tines of a fork to press the dough, both texturing the cookies and flattening them slightly. Bake at 170oC for 7-10 minutes. Cool on an oven rack.
For the icing: Melt the coconut oil and beat with the honey and flavourings, over ice if necessary to re-cool. When the cookies are completely cold; test by placing one aginst your lower lip which is very sensitive to heat. If still warm… well its been touched so must be eaten! Re-stir/beat the icing to soften and stick the cookies together with a generous serve of icing. Making sure your decorative lines are on the outside.
Notes:
For sophisticated orange chocolat noir moment de fonte (choc orange melting moments) add 20g Dutch pressed cocoa to the dry and 20g grated dark chocolate. Add the zest of a large orange to the icing and omit all lemon zest. For extra aroma use orange blossom honey for the cookies.
For Monte Carlos, omit the lemon in cookie and icing and spread one cookie with reduced strawberry jam and the other icing, and sandwich.
*For a
Vegan version substitute dairy butter for quality, organic coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter (highly recommended) or another oil. And replace the eggs for fruit juice or puree (lemon/orange juice or apple/pear puree)
*For a Gluten Free version use the yellow corn, buckwheat and millet flours.
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