Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2015 - Salted Double Chocolate Caramel Stuffed Cookies

I have once again joined the The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap which runs annally each year internationally, and is hosted by : Julie Tran from The Little Kitchen  & Lyndsay Landis from Love & Olive Oil.

This year I have opted out of my decorated cookies because with my business I just have not had the time to stretch myself.

So this year we have my favourite cookies which are totally delicious!!!

Salted Double Chocolate Caramel Stuffed Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups Choc Chips (I do dark to get the rich colour result)
1/4 Cup Butter
3 Eggs
1 Cup Golden Castor Sugar (for extra special flavour)
2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 tsp Salt
6 Tbsp Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
3 Tbsp Dutch Cocoa
2 tsp Chocolate Spice Mix
20  Caramels - cut in Half (I use Columbines as I am in Australia)
Fleur De Sel (Salt on top to bake)

Makes - 24-30 Cookies

Method

Place 1 1/2 cups of choc chips into a double boiler and melt and combine in the butter.

Place the eggs. sugar, vanilla and salt in the mixer and mix together thoroughly.

Swap to a spatula/wooden spoon. Then add in the flour and baking powder along with the cocoa, chocolate spice mix (I purchased from a German Spice Shop in the Strand Arcade Sydney - Gewurzhaus) and mix together very well so there are no white streaks present.

Cover and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Take out of the fridge and roll a tablespoon size of dough, then dip a hole using yor thumb and pop a half piece of caramel into the dough and roll up into a tight ball.  Place the cookie dough ball onto a baking tray.  Repeat and line tray leaving about 3 inches between each ball to allow for speading as these will become about 2-2.5 inches wide.

Press down on dough balls to flatten slightly.  Sprinkle the tops of cookies with the Fleur De Sel (or sea salt if you cannot obtain).

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool for 15 minutes.

*Note Im late in posting and my recipients will receive this coming week before Christmas.

Masterchef inspired Sticky Fig and Caramel Cake

Last year (2012) one of the ladies on Masterchef baked a fig cake on an elimination round, I think what sold it for me was her home made hot custard she served with it, but I didn't get a chance to make a batch of that.  Since then I have been on the lookout for some reasonable purple ripe figs to invent a similar cake....

And finally I found them... at the Eveleigh Farmers Market in Newtown, Sydney Australia, open every Saturday from 8am til 1pm and has a large range of fresh fruit stalls, about half a dozen fresh meat variety stalls, 2 flower sellers, lots of baked good from fresh breads, cakes, marshmallows, patisseries, cupcakes and of course hot food and coffee.

So I arrived home with my loot of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers, of course I cannot go without flowers! And I gorgeous cake was produced and in the oven within the hour! Check it out:

Sticky Fig and Caramel Cake

Cake :

150g Butter - room temp
150g Castor Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean - seeds scraped (and reserve pod)
2 Eggs
150g Plain Flour
5 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 cup Milk

Caramel Sauce :

1/4 cup Castor Sugar
50g Butter
1/3 cup Pure Cream
1/3 cup Honey
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

5 Large or 8 Small Fresh Purple Figs

Preheat oven at 180 degrees. Line your springform round tin (I used a 12 inch) with 2 layers of aluminium foil in the base of the tin to ensure caramel doesn't ooze out. I would also recommend a baking paper insert (a circle cut to shape to stop it sticking).

I recommend making the cake batter first, so place the butter and sugar into your mixer and cream them together until they are pale and fluffy.  Next crack your eggs into the bowl and mix them in thoroughly, and then add in your scraped vanilla pod seeds, beating them together.

Finally add in your flour and milk alternatively in three additions, and mix lightly until final addition is just combined.  Leave aside as you now need to make your caramel sauce to layer in the tin first.

To make your Caramel Sauce, place all the ingredients for the sauce into a medium saucepan and put your saucepan on the stove top on a medium heat.  Stir with rubber spatula until the sugar has fully dissolved and butter has completely melted.

Then bring the sauce to the boil, and cook it until the sauce turns a golden brown, remove the vanilla bean pod, and then allow it to cook for a few minutes until the sauce has a thicker consistency (like honey).

Take your prepared tin, cut your figs all in half and arrange cut side down into the pan.  Then pour the caramel sauce over the figs, covering them evenly.  After your have the caramel sauce layer in, then top with the cake batter, spread it evenly covering the sauce so none of it is exposed.  Then place the tin onto a baking tray, in case of any leakage in the baking. Put into the oven and bake the cake for 40-50 minutes, and test it is cooked through as different caramel consistencies and differing sizes of figs with alter the cooking time.

I served my slice of gorgeous cake with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, it went so well with the caramel.