Monday, March 5, 2012

Vanilla Mousse Slice

This is one of those "quick to throw together, everyone thinks you're a kitchen genius" kind of recipes. You whip it up the night before, ice it in the morning and you are set for any event. Morning tea at work? No problem. Visitors coming over for morning tea? You are set.

Ingredients:
1 packet milk coffee biscuits
300mL Thickened cream
150mL Milk (low fat is fine)
1 packet of  Vanilla magic instant mousse
Approx 1 cup pure icing sugar (sifted)
1-2 passionfruit



Method:
1. Place instant mousse powder, cream and milk into a large bowl.
2. Beat with electric beaters until well combined and form soft peaks
3. Line a slice tin with baking paper and a layer of biscuits.


4. Cover with the mousse mixture and another layer of bisuits, trying to keep them in the same orientation (to aide in slicing later)


5. Cover with a layer of cling wrap or foil and leave to set in the fridge for at least 12hours.
6. Mix passionfruit pulp and icing sugar to a nice pourable consistancy and pour over the top of the slice to cover evenly.
7. Allow to set in the fridge for at least 30mins before serving.

A note about setting times: If you have the time to leave it set for 24 hours total, the biscuits will become much softer and more cake-like in consistancy. It will work with a shorter setting time, but it won't be nearly as good. Trust me on this. A slightly longer time in the fridge (if you can resist the creamy goodness) is well worth the wait.

Choc Chip Cookies

Preparation Time
10 minutes

Cooking Time
20 minutes

Ingredients:

    150g softened butter
    1/2 cup caster sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    1 egg
    1 3/4 cups plain flour, Sifted
    1/2 cup dark chocolate bits
    1/2 cup milk chocolate bits


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick paper.
2. Beat softened butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes or until smooth and well combined.


3. Beat in 1 egg.


4. Stir in plain flour in two batches.
5. Stir in choc bits until evenly distributed.
6. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the lined trays. Press down slightly.


7. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until light golden and cooked.

8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. (Yeh, right! Like they would ever last that long!)



Usually, if I am accurate about the sizing and use a soup spoon full of dough per cookie, you get about 28-30 cookies out of this mix. I got 30 out of the batch I photographed for this and I was quite pedantic about the sizing as I wanted them to look good for the photos. If you prefer bigger or smaller cookies, go for it. I don't do any much bigger than this as they don't fit through the neck of my cookie jar. My husband and daughter pinched one each off the baking tray while I was fiddling with the settings on my camera. (Correction, my husband actually stole 2!)


Variation:
1) Remove 2 heaped tablespoons of flour and replace with cocoa powder. Replace choc chips with white choc bits.
2) Replace choc chips with mini MnMs