When we were
approached by Stork to do a little something for world baking day there were mixed
reactions in the test kitchen. On one hand there is me, who is not the worlds
keenest baker (a little understatement) thinking “Nah, just skip it”. Then at
the other end there is my fabulous side kick, Liezl Vermeulen, who's Nigella
embodied, going “bring it on!”. Guess
who won?
Lucky for us, on
the day we were baking we were shooting with Henk the Magnificent (food
photographer Henk Hattingh) and he took these beautiful pics for us. www.facebook.com/pages/Henk-Hattingh-Photography
Stork asked us to
pledge our bake-off to someone or something. Neither of us could really think
of anyone in our life who really needs to eat more cake (they are all banting), so we decided to opt
for a charity. We chose Linawo Children’s Home in Pinelands. www.facebook.com/LinawoChildrensHome
We will be surprising them next week by
dropping off some baked goodies.
We were also supplied with a pledge pack that contained everything we needed to start baking.
Stork supplied us
with this recipe for simple cookies. It’s a pretty smart cookie in that you
can turn it into pretty much anything. Add some choc chips,nuts or dried fruit if you like. Decorate with runny
icing, sugar crystals, make stain glass cookies, or whatever else takes your
fancy.
RECIPE:
200g Stork Bake margarine
250g cake flour
5g baking powder
100g castor sugar
pinch of salt
2 large egg yolks
makes 24 small or 12 larger cookies
Preheat oven to
190°C.Grease or line several baking trays with baking paper.
Cut Stork Bake
into small cubes.
Place all the
ingredients, except the eggs, in a food processor and pulse until it forms
crumbs.
Add the yolks and
pulse until mixture forms a ball.
Wrap in cling film
and allow to rest in a cool place for 30 minutes.
Roll on a lightly
floured surface to 5mm thick.
Punch out cookies
using your chosen cookie cutter and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and
slightly bronzed on the edges. Cool on a rack.
* Carefully re-roll scraps to make even more cookies
ICING OPTIONS
We used a basic
runny icing made by mixing sifted icing sugar with egg white. It sets really
hard and doesn’t smudge.
You could also
just dust them with icing sugar or drizzle them with melted chocolate.
So, are you up for a challenge? Why don't you join us and bake something for world baking day on 18 May?
#PledgeToBake
