Easy Vanilla Cheesecake Recipe

Cheesecake is one of those desserts that never fails to wow people, yet many novice bakers are apprehensive about taking cheesecake on as it is believed to be so difficult to make. This is not the case; in fact as far as baking goes, cheesecake is actually quite easy, it just takes time. To show you just how easy it is, I've provided a step by step with photos.

There are a plethora of cheesecake varieties out there, with perhaps the most famous being the New York Style, but I'll save that for another day. Today we're going to tackle the age-old traditional vanilla cheesecake.

First up you will need a pie crust. Store bought pie crusts work fine, but if you're like me, you'll want to make it from scratch. I've played around with a variety of different ingredients for the crust, and one of my favourite things to throw in there are Hob Nob biscuits. The oats in the biscuits add a lovely crunch to the crust, so if you  happen upon Hob Nobs, grab a pack!

So here's what you'll need for the crust: 

• 1 1/2 cups crumbled biscuits (or flour if you prefer - if using flour, add 2 - 3 tbsp of sugar to the crust)
• 6 tbsp of melted butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon. 

*Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, 190 Celsius*

Start off with your biscuits. I chose plain old vanilla tea biscuits for this recipe, but depending on your taste preferences you can choose a wide variety. Play around with it and find what suits you best!

Next up you have to crumble the biscuits into fine crumbs. You can use a food processor, or you can use one of my favourite stress busters. Stick your biscuits into a Ziplock bag, and using a rolling pin roll them out and crush them into crumbs.

It should end up looking like this: 

Add one teaspoon of cinnamon to your crust mix. 

Throw in your melted butter on top of it all, and mix well. 

The end consistency should be one of soggy crumbs. Not too wet that they clump together, but not too dry that you cannot get them to stick.

Finally, in an 8 inch pie dish, mold your crumbs into a pie crust like this: 

 Bake your crust in the oven for about 8-10 minutes until it's slightly golden. Remove and let it cool.

Next up is the cheesecake part. Here's what you'll need for this: 

• 300 - 500 grams (3/4 - 1 lb) of softened cream cheese (the more cream cheese you add, the more solid your pie filling will be. For this pie I used 300 grams of cream cheese, and the final result was the consistency of cream cheese pudding. Delicious! But for first time bakers of cheese cake, go with 500 grams)
• 1 1/4 cups white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 3 large eggs

Here's a tip I have found ever so useful. I always thought it had to be Philadelphia cream cheese in the recipe to get the perfect cheesecake. Not so. Philadelphia in Egypt is outrageously expensive, making the overhead costs of just one cheesecake topping out at around 20 dollars. Fortunately, Kiri Cheese is a perfect alternative. Make sure you leave your cheese out before cooking to let it soften, it will make the first step much easier for you. 

Combine your cheese and sugar in a large mixing bowl. 

Add your vanilla essence. 

Mix well until you have a smooth mixture like this: 

Add your eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Make sure you're scraping the sides of your bowl as you go along to really get all the ingredients mixed well.

The end mixture should look something like this: 

Add the cheesecake mix to your cooled pie crust, and throw it in the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes. You want it to be solid, but still wobbly in the center. Remove the cheesecake from the oven, and let cool. Refrigerate from 12-24 hours. Serve on its own, or with whipped cream as a topping, or really whatever you want!

Here's the final product! 

Bon Appetit! :D

Bailey's Chocolate Cream Frosting

I love Bailey's, and like most women, I love chocolate. So is there anything better than a combination of the both that can be used as a frosting for cupcakes? Mmm, I think not. I actually whipped this creation up myself the other day while searching for a suitable frosting for Vanilla Cupcakes. Can I tell you a secret? I've been eating the frosting without the cupcakes :p It's that good.

So here's what you'll need: 

• 250 grams of cream cheese, softened to room temp. 
• 150 grams of chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tbsp of butter
• 1 tbsp Bailey's

Directions: 

Melt your chocolate with the butter. The trick to melting chocolate so that you get the rich and smooth texture is to avoid placing it directly on the heat. Best way to do this, is to place your chocolate in a pot, and place that pot on top of a pot of boiling water. It will provide consistent heat for the chocolate to melt. Adding just a 1/2 tbsp of butter gives you a smooth rich chocolate sauce that will easily pour.

Take your softened cream cheese and gradually add the icing sugar. Stir until smooth and most of the lumps are gone.

Add your chocolate sauce to the cream cheese and icing sugar mix. Stir well.

Finally, add your tbsp of Bailey's and stir through thoroughly.

Use to frost cakes, or as a delicious topping to cupcakes!

Bon appetit :)

Ginger snaps

It's that time of year again when baking becomes a natural past-time. This year I'm embarking on making a new selection of goodies, including minced pies, of which I will post the recipe later. 

A few years ago I posted a recipe for Sparkling Ginger Cookies, and although this is similar, these Ginger Snaps are in a league of their own. I have had multiple people who have tasted these request the recipe, so your wish is my command! Below find the recipe for a delectable Christmas treat, sure to go over well with any crowd. As per usual, I found an original recipe (in this case in the Joy of Cooking) and altered it to fit my needs - and through trial and error. In my opinion their recipe had too much ginger; it made the cookies far too spicy, so I reduced quantities as necessary. 

Here's what you'll need. 

**Ingredients**

1 3/4 cups fine baking flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 

6 tablespoons softened butter (unsalted)

3/4 cup white sugar (or you can do half white half brown)

1 large egg

1/4 cup dark molasses

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

**Directions**

Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit (176 Celsius). Although Joy calls to grease a cookie sheet, I have found that the butter already in the recipe makes it so the cookies don't stick as it is. So it's your call to grease or not :)

Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves) and add a pinch of salt. -- I bought fresh cloves and crushed them myself, I love the smell of fresh cloves! 

Beat together your butter and sugar until fluffy. 

Add to your butter mix your egg, molasses, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix until well combined. 

Gradually stir in the flour mixture until well mixed. 

Roll out little balls (about the size of a bouncy ball) and place on your baking sheet. 

Bake for about 10-12 minutes each. If you want softer cookies, bake for 8 minutes. 

Alternatively, once you've rolled the dough into balls, you can also then coat with a sugar / cinnamon mix for a little extra sweetness on top. 

Bon appetit!!!

Butterscotch Brownies

I was requested that I post this recipe, which was a huge hit. Apparently it tastes very similar to an Egyptian style of cake, so K was more than enthused to have it with his morning Chai Bil Laban (Tea with Milk) for breakfast. As per usual, I found a recipe in the Joy of Cooking and made it my own!

So here's what you'll need: 

1 eight inch baking pan (lined with foil) 

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup butter (unsalted preferably)

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence 

1 tbsp white sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp water (original recipe called for 1 tbsp corn syrup, but that's something I cannot find here so I improvised)

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 175 Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).

Grease your foil-lined baking pan. This is very important, if you miss this step you'll end up peeling off foil from your brownies. Mmm...foil covered brownies.

Whisk together in a large bowl your flour, baking soda and powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a non-stick saucepan, melt your butter. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter turns a golden brown colour (takes three to five minutes).

Remove from heat. Stir in brown and white sugar until well blended.

As the mixture cools, add in your egg, egg yolk, your sugar / water (or corn syrup) blend and vanilla.

Mix your wet ingredients into flour mixture.

Add to baking pan, and cook until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, between 20-30 minutes.

 

Et. Voila! Bil Hana Wa Shiva! 

Top with cream, or serve with Ice Cream! 

Key Lime Pie (with pictures)

I've previously posted a recipe for Key Lime Pie on the blog, but in the time since then, I've spiced it up and perfected it (well, in my humble opinion :p).

Cooking is a collaborative effort, and I find that often just reading through a recipe can be very daunting. My favourite recipes to follow have always been the ones that have step by step pictures, so at least I can see if my mixture is too lumpy, or too runny, or if something else has gone obviously wrong.

With me being in Egypt, it's impossible to find key limes here. Instead, I use lemons, and if I can find them, one or two larger limes. So technically, it's a Key Lime Pie, done Egyptian style. **note, the size of the lemons here are the same size as key limes, so the measurements are not affected - only the colouring**

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (12 to 15 key limes - depending on size) 4 teaspoons grated lime zest
2 egg yolks, 2 egg whites
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 packs vanilla wafers, 3/4 cup biscuits
1.5 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

• Preheat oven to about 170 Celsius.
• Crumble your biscuits. There are a few ways to do this. If you have vanilla wafers with cream, make sure you mix up the wafers with the biscuits. I used a blender to crumble mine; if you don't have a blender on hand throw them into a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. 

• Most recipes will tell you here to use 3 tablespoons sugar, and mix in with your biscuits. Because I used wafers, I cut back the sugar to 1.5, as the wafers are already quite sweet. So mix your 1.5 spoons of sugar in with your biscuit mix. 

• Add the melted butter to your biscuits, and mix together until well mixed and slightly sticky. I melt the butter right before I use it, and I melt it in the glass pie dish that I'll use. This way I can grease the dish at the same time as melting the butter, kill two birds with one stone. 

• Press the biscuit mix into a pie pan (roughly 9 inches), and up the sides for the crust. Make sure you spread it evenly. It's easiest to start from the center and press out towards the sides. Bake for roughly 10-15 min., until slightly browned.  

The best pie crust I have ever made!

• While your pie crust is cooking, prepare the filling. Start with zesting your limes, you'll need the zest off of about 5 limes. 

• Cut your limes in half, and juice them. Strain out the bits and pips 

• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and lime zest until the mixture is slightly green. Add the condensed milk and your lime juice, mix well. Set mixture aside until your crust is cooled. 

• Once your crust has cooled, add your filling. Bake for an additional 15 minutes, until the centre is solid but wobbles like jelly. 

• Remove your pie from the oven and let cool to room temp. Once cooled, refrigerate for three hours or until solid. 

And the end result! Bon appetit!

Pita Bread Recipe

It's been a heavy few weeks, and I've somewhat taken a break from posting any form of recipes. It's a sign of things returning to some sense of normalcy that I'll post a recipe for Pita Bread. I was nervous to try this; I know baking bread for the first time can end up a disaster, but it turned out really well!!

Let me say first, my oven doesn't retain heat too well, so is not ideal for baking bread. I ended up having to cook the pita about 5 minutes longer than the recipe called for :p.

Ingredients: 

3 cups Bread Flour 

1 1/2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

1 1/2 Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast (or 2 packages)

2 Tablespoons of Butter - Melted

1 1/4 Cups Water - MAKE SURE this water is room temperature!!

Preparations:

1. Combine in a large bowl the Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Yeast. Mix together.
   
2. Add the Butter and Water. I did this in partitions to make sure I had the right consistency (as I've had disastrous results with dough before lol...that could have been used as superglue or cement...).
   
3. Mix by hand or on low speed in a mixer for about 10 minutes.
   
4. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is smooth, soft, and elastic. If needed, add little bits of flour/water to obtain necessary consistency. It should not be sticky!!
   
5. Transfer dough to a bowl with oil around the inside, rotate dough to cover the surface with the oil.
   
6. Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rise for 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs. The dough should double in size.
   
7. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, 232 degrees Celsius. Let your oven heat up fully, if you put the dough in before it's hot...your bread won't cook properly!
   
8. Place a Pizza or Baking stone inside your oven while it's pre-heating. (**I did not have a pizza stone...so I used a regular baking tray turned upside down - just don't let it sit in the oven while it's pre-heating!!**)

While your oven is preheating: 

1. Take your dough, and punch it down. Split into 8 equal pieces, and roll into balls.
   
2. Cover the dough and let rest for an additional 20 minutes. 

When ready to bake: 

1. On a lightly floured surface roll your dough balls out into "thin rounds." They should be about 20 cm around, and 2 cm thick (roughly).
   
2. The recipe here called to mist your baking tray with water, and add the dough rounds - as many as will fit on your tray without touching. My first use with water ended up with the bread sticking to the base and ruined it. For the next round I lightly buttered the base to avoid sticking. Oil will also work well if your baking pan will cause the bread to stick!
   
   
3. Bake until the bread puffs up. The recipe called for about 3 minutes, but like I said I had to cook a little longer b/c of my oven.
   

   

   Bake away!

4. Remove bread promptly, and transfer to rack to cool. 

Enjoy! :)  

Dinner! Fresh Bread, Fresh Salad, and Chicken with an Alfredo Dill Sauce. Yummy!

Apple Crumble!

With Thanksgiving this week, and all the cooking that goes with it, I thought a new recipe post would be just perfect.

Apple Crumble (or any fruit crumble for that matter) is one of the easiest desserts to make, and takes very little time to boot! :) So here you go, the infamous Apple Crumble recipe, a'la Suz!

Ingredients: 

For the filling:

3-4 large apples

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the crumble: 

2 tablespoons sugar (brown or white, doesn't matter :) )

1/2 cup oats

3/4 cup crushed biscuits 

4 tablespoons of butter 

I prefer to use biscuits for my crumble. Many recipes will call for flour, but I feel the biscuits give it a nicer crunch. Hob Nobs work best, with their oaty flavour it compliments the apples nicely.

Directions:

• Preheat your Oven to 180 Celsius, 350 Fahrenheit.
• Take your apples, peel and core them. Slice them into sections, about 1/2 inch thick. Take the apples, and add the brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix and sit aside.
• Crush your biscuits (Easiest way to do this is with a Ziplock bag and a rolling pin :) ) 
• Add your biscuit mix to the oats. Stir in sugar, and mix all together with the butter. You want it to be fairly solid in consistency, but still enough to crumble. Add a little bit of extra butter if it's not holding together well. 
• Place the apple mix in your baking dish, and sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. 
• Bake for roughly 10-15 minutes, or until the top has browned. 

Serve warm, or cold. Goes GREAT with custard! Bon appetit :).

Chewy Coconut Cookies! :D

Ok, enough heavy blogs, it's time for a nice and easy, yet delicious, cookie recipe.

I went looking the other day for chocolate chips, in the mind to make chocolate chip cookies.

I went to no less than four supermarkets around me, including Metro, and I could not find chocolate chips anywhere. But a bag of shredded coconut caught my eye, and I figure hey, why not try coconut cookies? I left with the bag of shredded coconut, hoping that the recipes I found wouldn't require any unusual ingredients.

Fortunately it didn't, and this is a great recipe for coconut cookies. I tweaked it after the first batch, and the result was perfectly chewy, delicious coconut cookies.

** Ingredients **

• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 a cup of butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.

I changed this slightly, rather than adding 1 1/3 cup coconut, I added 1/3 cup dark chocolate, shredded, and 1 cup coconut. It's a perfect compliment

** Directions **

• Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit (175 degrees C) I reduced this heat, my oven cooks too quickly from the base, so I dropped it to about 150 Celsius - helps with a chewier cookie
• Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
• Slowly blend in the flour. The mixture will be quite hard, if you're having troubles stirring it just add a dash of milk.
• Add Coconut (And chocolate if you want ;) )
• Drop mixture of about a teaspoon full of batter onto your baking sheet. (Here's a little hint...have you ever noticed how some people's cookies come out almost perfectly round every time? Like frustratingly perfect looking cookies? I always had that problem, mine were still delicious, but looked "odd." With this batch, I rolled them in my hands once or twice to make little balls of dough. The result? Well...you tell me. :D)

Bake the Cookies for approximately 8 - 10 minutes. (I baked mine a little bit longer as the temperature was lower. About 12 minutes) If your cookies are finished, when inserting a toothpick into the center, it should come out clean.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Swirl Cupcakes

Who doesn't love cupcakes? A delicious little treat, that you can make as sweet as you like, and virtually any flavour under the sun. My last attempt at cupcakes was plain ol' vanilla, so I decided this time to spice it up a little bit. I've combined two different recipes here, to make the perfect Cinnamon Swirl Cupcake. And let me say, they are delicioussssss.....

**Note...I have cut the recipe in half, this yields 12 cupcakes in total. :D**

Here's what you'll need:

For the cupcakes:

113 grams of unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup white sugar

3 large eggs (If you only want to use the whites...then 4 egg whites)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose white flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon lemon zest

** Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). **

Whisk together your flour and salt. In a separate bowl, beat your butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add your eggs one at a time to the butter mixture, mix well. Beat in your vanilla and lemon zest.

Add your flour mixture to butter and egg mixture, adding flour and milk alternatively to ensure a smooth consistency. Set the batter aside.

For your cinnamon swirl, you will need:

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Combine all three ingredients in a small bowl.

Take your batter and add one tablespoon of batter to your greased muffin tray (Or if you have cupcake papers, into the papers :D - I didn't, so I improvised lol). Using a teaspoon, sprinkle your cinnamon mixture on top of each cupcake. Add an additional 1 tablespoon of batter on top of each cupcake.

Finally, take a toothpick, and swirl your toothpick through each cupcake. I like to add a little extra cinnamon mixture on top, if you do, make sure you swirl that through with your toothpick too.

Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Once you've taken out your cupcakes, set them aside and use the time that they are cooling to make your frosting.

For your frosting you will need (**again, remember I cut this in half... and it still makes a LOT of frosting**):

2 cups of icing sugar
113 grams of softened butter (unsalted)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Combine all of the ingredients, and beat well until smooth. Spread on top of cupcakes! and Voila!



If you want a little added "pizazz," add a dash of the cinnamon mix (if you have any remaining) on top of the cupcake. They are sure to be a hit, no matter who you're serving to :D.

Key Lime Yumminess

So I've taken a break from blogging and Internet life in general, so what better way to get back into the swing of things other than to post another delicious recipe. I love this recipe, it's pretty easy to make, and goes over very well with people who love sweets, and those who don't.

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (12 to 15 key limes - depending on size)
4 teaspoons grated lime zest
4 egg yolks
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 large pack digestive biscuits or something similar. (butter biscuits basically)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted

**For the pie I just made, I substituted the eggs yolks for eggs whites. It really made the mixture fluffier, I definitely think I'll use egg whites from now on.**

Directions

• Preheat oven to about 170 Celsius.
  
• Start with the lime zest, and take the zest off of around 5 limes. Then cut your limes in half, and juice them into your cup. Strain out the bits and the pips.
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and the lime zest until the mixture is greenish.
• Add the condensed milk and juice, mix together well. Sit this mixture aside.*note, I also added a pinch of ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon just for a little extra zing*
  
• Crumble your biscuits. I find the easiest way to do this, is stick them in a ziplock bag, then using a rolling pin crush them. It keeps them consistently crumbled. Plus, it's a great stress vent ;).
• In a separate bowl, mix together your biscuits and sugar. Again for this pie I tweaked it slightly, and only used one tablespoon of white granulated sugar, and two tablespoons of brown sugar. It adds a lovely taste to the crust.
  
• Add the melted butter to your biscuits, and mix together until well mixed and slightly sticky. sometimes a few drops of water are needed :).
• Press the biscuit mix into a pie pan (roughly 9 inches), and up the sides for the crust. Make sure you spread it evenly. It's easiest to start from the center and press out towards the sides.
  
• Bake your biscuit mix in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until slightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
  
• Once your crust has cooled, pour in your lime mixture. Return to the oven for about another 15 minutes, until the center is solid, but wobbles like jelly.
  
• Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, stick in the fridge for about 3 hours until cooled and set. (we usually can't wait that long lol, so I stick it in the freezer).

If you want, whisk up some whipped cream, and voila! A perfect treat sure to suit the very sweet tooth, or the not so sweet tooth!

Rice Pudding!!!

This has always been one of my favourite desserts. I remember when I first started trying to make it in California at the ripe age of 18 lol. The threat from Dale to "not try that," and "do NOT leave the rice alone," ended up in me using the wrong rice and burning it all to the bottom of the pan. Fortunately since then, I have wizened up a little bit (just a little ;) ) and can now make a deliciously tasty rice pudding.

It's important to not use instant rice in this recipe, it doesn't cook long enough to absorb the milk. Most rice pudding recipes will call to boil the rice in milk from the get go, but I don't see the point burning off so much milk.

I take about 2 cups of rice, and 3.5 cups water or so. Cook the rice until fluffy (but not fully cooked), then drain. Add about 2 cups of milk to the rice and finish cooking until tender. You may or may not want to add more milk depending on how creamy you like your pudding. I prefer using full cream milk for this, it's a creamier taste.

Once the rice is cooked, add about 1/4 a cup brown sugar, and 1/4 a cup white sugar. Mix into the rice, with about 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Voila, perfect rice pudding! :D

Sweeten to taste, but one of my favourite ways to eat this is with Jam, or with melted chocolate! Can't go wrong, and a little bit of warm rice pudding can be the perfect comfort food for a cold night outside.

Ginger goodness :D

Ok, as promised, I've been baking all week. (Ok perhaps slight exaggeration, but you know...lots of cooking in one night should count too :p). Friday this week rolls around, and as per usual, most of us had stayed out too late on Thursday, and didn't want to go anywhere on Friday. I fell back on my trusty plan B, head to someone's house for a night of cooking and movies, and maybe throw in a glass of wine there.

Friday night the venue was Charlotte's house. Optimal, because not only does she have a lovely large kitchen, and sound system for Moby to play around on ;), her two dogs Vicky and Bennie provided the perfect training tool for my new wonderdog "Sookie" (I'll have to blog about her too! lol). Sookie is a gorgeous Belgian/German Shepard cross, and now that she's gaining some weight, looks quite healthy. Looking at her, you'd think tough dog. That's the farthest from the truth though, Sookie is a huge "Fraidy cat." lol. I figured the over-excited antiques of Charlotte's "Dober-hund" Vicky would help quiet Sookie down around people. (Plan executed...plan 50 % success rate >.<) Anyhow, enough about the dogs. On to the recipe. On tonight's menu, we had Sparkling ginger cookies. Deliciously spicy, they are definitely a Christmas tasting cookie. Definitely a huge success on Friday. I found this recipe online, but made a few changes to it. Having already made these cookies, I think that coating them entirely in sugar takes too much away from the ginger flavour. Next time, I would only coat one side. :D The ingredients are as follows.

1/2 cup / 3.5 oz / 90 g Brown sugar
6 ounces / 170 g bittersweet chocolate (We forgot to get this at the store - haha - so substituted with regular chocolate chips - 3/4 a bag)
2 cups / 8.5 oz / 245 g whole wheat pastry flour ('m in Egypt...totally only used regular flour ;) )
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup / 4 oz / 113 g unsalted butter
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 60 ml unsulphured molasses (black honey)

2/3 cup / 3.75 oz / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, peeled (We didn't grab this either, so just used ground ginger again)
1 large egg, well beaten

We also added around 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, Moby is a cinnamon addict. :p


Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.



Whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking soda and salt (and in my case, cinnamon). Set aside.
Heat the butter until it's just barely melted (ie. slightly more melted than "soft") and mix with brown sugar, molasses and fresh ginger. Whisk in the egg.

Pour this mixture over the flour. Stir until mixed.

Fold in the chocolate (I learned here that folding it in is important, if you "mix" it with your hands, the butter gets too warm and the mixture too sticky).


Now take your white sugar, and put it in a bowl. Scoop out small portions of the mixture (about a teaspoon full) and roll in your hands. Roll this mixture in the white sugar, and place on the cookie tray. - This is the part that makes the cookies really sweet, next time I won't coat the whole cookie, i.e. roll the whole thing. Instead, I would dip one side. Depends on how sweet you like your biscuits ;) )


Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes, is what the original recipe called for. But, working on an Egyptian oven, is slightly different lol. We baked them for about 15 minutes. Once cool, grab a glass of milk, and enjoy!!!