So many have asked for this, so here it is. Based on my Grandma's Anzac biscuit recipe, but with a few, ahhh, modifications. this recipe makes 12 decent sized biscuits.



Ingredients:

1 cup of standard flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 cup of shredded coconut
3/4 cup of rolled oats
3/4 cup of cranberries
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

110 grams of butter
1 good tablespoon of golden syrup
2 tablespoons of water
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

Method:

Prep a tray with baking paper and turn the oven on to bake at 180 degrees.

Chuck all the dry ingredients (except baking soda) into a largish bowl and use a spoon or fork to mix them. Don't bash them to bits, just make sure the brown sugar is broken down and the cranberries are separated.

Chop the butter into a pot with the golden syrup and water and warm over a medium heat. Don't let the combo boil. As soon as the butter is melted turn of the heat and tip in the baking soda. Stir it in (it'll froth up, but that's good) and then pour the whole lot into the dry ingredients.

Using the back of a tablespoon, stir it all together. Again - don't over mix. As soon as you have no dry flour visible, you're done.

Roll into good sized balls and flatten with a fork or fish-slice. Bake for about 12 - 14 minutes, depending on the oven.

Enjoy. They should last a couple of days in an airtight container.

Why do I bake? Is a question oft asked of me by Blokes Who Don't.

And I could answer it with many complicated words, or with a few simple words ... or better yet with a handy-dandy video of this one time at a PechaKucha night in Wellington.

And look - here it is, in which I answer that very question:


Holy Cranzac.

It's been quiet on the blogging front lately because of the baking and fundraising and promoting and what-not.

And today, this: 

$4K for the RSA. 

A lot of people had to work hard for two weeks but handing over the cheque this morning with Reese from Thorndon New World made it worth every single minute. 

Cranzacs will be back next year. 


They began by accident. Created because I was baking Anzac biscuits for the kids and happened to have some cranberries left over. In they went and the result was, in a word, unbelievably delicious (yes, that's two words, but let's not lose focus here).


A discussion in the office about the resulting 'Cranzac' biscuit developed quickly from 'we should sell these and raise money for the RSA' to calling Reese at Thorndon New World in Wellington to see if he'd get on board and support the project. And oh my stars, did he ever.

He loved the biscuit, he loved the idea and he even loved the sticker I designed with - in the absence of any need to share credit - my own face under my own name in the middle of it.



So we tinkered a little with baking times and quantities, given the humungous, industrial ovens that they cook with and in a day or two had come up with what was a bloody good biscuit - true to the recipe that I'd accidentally created a week earlier.


Then Reese and his team figured out nutritional information, worked out a price, created a code, and started on production. This was a shade over two weeks out from Anzac Day.

He called me on the eve of their first day of sale to say he'd made 600 packets of Cranzacs. At which point my dodgy heart nearly gave out. I suffered an immediate puckering of the sphincter and shortness of breath. Honestly? I'd thought we might sell a hundred. Maybe one-fifty. But 600 packets?

I imagined half of them going stale post Anzac Day or being heaved into a 'half price' bin.

As I write this we are just over a week in with just under a week to go until Anzac Day - our national day of remembrance. My Cranzacs have gone much better than anyone could have imagined. 1200 packets sold to date.



Read that number again. 1200. Thats 6000 biscuits. With five sales days to go. Already this has been so successful that we're talking about how far and wide to take it next year and I've applied to trademark the name and protect the recipe.

So. If you haven't already - go get some. You have five days left. Proceeds after expenses go to the Wellington RSA.

Kudos to Reese and his team, working round the clock to make the delicious, cranberry-packed treats.
Just quietly, I'm mega-stoked.
I am asked every second day if I have any gluten free recipes on the website.

The answer is always the same. Nope. There are, I tell people, plenty of gluten free websites that you can Google, I'm just a bloke who likes to bake things for the family and me - and none of us are (yet) gluten free.

Then, yesterday, Zoe didn't ask the question. She just grabbed a recipe she liked the look of and used a gluten free flour mix to bake it. As it happened the recipe came out great!

See for yourself:



The GF element was a mix of rice, potato and tapioca flour and a bit of xantham gum, she tells me. So, you know what? There ARE gluten free recipes on the website. Any of them can be gluten free. If it's a great recipe, it's a great recipe. Just use gluten free ingredients.

Thanks Zoe - like your style.

Now. Are there any dairy free recipes? As it turns out - probably.
You know that thing when someone asks for a recipe and you give them one and then they make it and take it to a party?

I had that over the weekend. Only the party was a big deal and the recipe really was mine and not just out of the Edmond's book and the person making it needed it to come out great because it had to impress people who know what they're doing. So ... pressure on.

This was what I told her to make. The secret is the cranberries. And the spices. And the brown sugar.



Then when I didn't hear from her after the party I got nervous. I hadn't worked, I thought. She can't bear to tell me how bad it was, I thought. I have failed her, I thought.

So guess how good it felt when I got this text:

OMG! Divine! Blew everyone away!!

Best feeling ever. Because the thing about baking is this: it's for sharing. The food or the recipes or ideas, or whatever. What's the point of baking great cakes if you're the only one eating them?

A quick thought on spice.

On second thought, this applies to pretty much any ingredients but you can taste it more with the spices you use.

All due respect to the folks at Greggs and other broad scope companies (Pams etc), but for God's sake don't use their spices in your baking.


Go to The Spice Rack, Spice Trader or somewhere similar and get the real thing. This is especially true with ginger. The difference between standard, bland, generic powdered ginger in your ginger slice and the real, full on stuff from a proper spice specialist is unbelievable.

Some things you can scrimp on, but not that.
I don't know about other blokes but I've had trouble with gingernuts.

Not red-headed people, some of my best friends are flame fried carrot tops, but actual gingernuts. Biscuits. A lot of recipes come out soft or without the desired spicy punch.

Enter Doug.

He's the genius that gave me the best biscuit recipe I've tried. I reckon ... and I'm not normally this adventurous ... a pinch of pepper goes a long way with these cookies.


If ever proof was needed that I'm the world's laziest bugger then here it is (bookmark this in case proof ever is actually needed in, like, a court of law).



My lovely Mum gave me a journal a few years back with several of her and my grandma's baking recipes hand written into the pages. Since then I've printed and been gifted and stolen and torn from the newspaper hundreds more recipes, folded the pieces of paper and shoved them into the journal with the thought that I'd eventually get around to writing them or pasting them into the book.

It hasn't happened. I have a suspicion it never will. But I kind of like the rustic (read: half-arsed) way it all looks, and the fact that in having to unfold every single sheet to find the recipe I'm looking for, I also rediscover plenty that I'd like to try.

Have you got a journal with lots of pieces of paper shoved into it?
I can't tell you how long I've spent trying to find or create the perfect sweet short crust pastry.
Or maybe I can. Months. Literally every day for months I made pastry until I had it exactly where I wanted it. Almost.

And then this from the pages of the Masterchef NZ cookbook. It's easy and it works and it tastes amazing. So credit where it's due.

I find I need to add just a splash of cold water.


This is potentially the start of something great.



And I can't say a word about it. Yet.
How's this for the ultimate compliment:

I bumped into a Mum I know who looooves banana cake almost as much as I do. She's baked banana cakes untold times over the years and just recently tried this one. Which happens to be my recipe.


And her son (a brilliant 13 year old kid) told her it was the best one he'd ever had!

Ingredients:

125g butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 or 4 smashed bananas
1 t-spoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot milk
2 cups Champion standard flour
1 t-spoon baking powder

Method:

Get the oven up to 180C. Grease a 20cm cake tin.
Zap the butter for 30 seconds in the microwave (or until it's soft but not melted) then cream in the sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time and keep on beating till it's smooth. Add the smashed bananas and stir through.
Separately stir the baking soda into the hot milk. It should froth up! pour the milk into your mixture. Sift in the dry ingredients.
Don't over mix - just fold it all through and then pour it out into the cake tin.

Bake for around 45 - 50 minutes depending on your oven.

Sheesh I love banana cake. Try it.

Sometimes you faff around for ages figuring out how to get baked goods into a certain shape. For example: heart shaped cupcakes.

So, you can make them and then cut the shape out, or you can go to the local supplier and buy molds (oooh, expensive!) OR you can do this:


Unless you've lost your marbles, obviously.

Side note: I am aware that heart shaped cupcakes are not in any way blokey. But I have daughters and if they want heart shaped cupcakes and there's an easy way to make that happen, then that's what's gonna happen. Take it up with them if you have a problem.