Myf's Super Chocolate Truffles

Need to take something to a party that is neat, sophisticated and self contained? Need little party favours or thank-you gifts? Myf's chocolate truffles are for you!

Equipment:

• Grater
• Saucepan
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pouring cream
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of glucose syrup
• 250g block of milk chocolate - or half milk, half dark if you prefer
• (Optional tablespoon of alcohol - grand marnier, butterscotch schnapps, whisky or rum works nicely, particularly if you use the milk and dark chocolate mix)
• 150-200g of extra milk chocolate for dipping
• High quality dutch cocoa for rolling

Method:

• Grate your 250g chocolate block
• Mix the cream, butter and glucose syrup together in your saucepan, bring to boil over medium heat, then turn off.
• Add grated chocolate to the pan, swirly gently, but don't mix. 
• Leave to sit for 5 minutes off the heat.
• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Whisk slowly to combine, transfer into a bowl and put in the fridge for an hour.
• You need to stir at 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 45 minutes. Now the mix will start to thicken really quickly, so you have to stir more frequently: every 5 minutes until the hour is up.
• Scoop out 1 inch bowl of mix and roll between your palms (it helps if you run your hands under cold water and dry them first). Place each ball on the baking tray, and chill the tray for about 15 minutes until they are firm.
• Meanwhile, melt the extra chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds so you don't burn it. Allow to cool slightly.
• Put a layer of the cocoa on a plate.
• Using a toothpick dip the balls in the melted chocolate and then immediately roll in the cocoa, swishing it around with one hand, and rolling between your palms to make it spherical again.

Serve:
I like to serve about four-six in little cellulose packets if they are gifts, tied up with ribbon. Or in a nice airtight container if I'm taking it to a party.

Peanut Butter Cookies

These for me are a comfort food. It is a recipe I remember making in my own home in early high school, either to take in for fundraising bake sales, or for friends or family. It is a really tolerant recipe in terms of amounts, and its nice to make something that isn't chocolate-based.

Equipment:

• Knife
• Chopping board
• Large mixing bowl
• Medium mixing bowl
• Cup measures
• Fork
• Cup
• Electric mixer
• Sieve (to sift your flour)
• Tea towel or glad wrap
• Cookie tray/sheet
• Baking paper

Ingredients:

• 125g butter (half a block)
• 1/2 cup sugar (white or raw)
• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
• 1/2 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter (I like crunchy)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup Self-Raising Flour
• Pinch Salt (optional - remember how salty some peanut butters already are)
• Baking paper

Method:

1. Chop up your butter into small cubes (about 1-2cm cubes)
2. Put chopped up butter, both kinds of sugar, and peanut butter in your large bowl, and mix until it has a creamy texture with the electric mixer (it will take a little while for the butter lumps to totally disappear)
3. Break the egg into the cup, and beat with a fork.
4. Add your egg into the mixture, and mix again with the electric mixer.
5. Sift your flour and the salt into the medium mixing bowl (this is optional, but it does make sure you don't have any lumpy floury bits lumpy floury bits).
6. Add this to your creamy mixture and mix well with the beater until you get a soft dough
7. Cover your mix with a tea towel or glad wrap and stick it in the fridge.

Now you need to leave your dough in the fridge for half an hour or more (whatever is convenient). You can also roll this out into a long sausage, wrap it in glad wrap and then foil and freeze if you want to keep emergency cookie dough in the freezer, but you will need to let it fully defrost before you continue with the next step.

1. Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius.
2. Cover your baking sheet with baking paper.
3. Using clean hands, grab about a tablespoon of mixture, and roll it into a ball between your palms, as if you were making clay, play-doh or plasticine objects :).Put it on the baking tray and press it down with a fork (I like a cross-hatch)
4. Fill up your tray with these little biscuits. Leave a couple of cm between each on the tray, as these guys to spread and expand - I tend to do about twelve per tray. You can do three trays at once or the same tray three times (which is what I do).
5. Put your tray in the oven and set the timer for 8-9 minutes for light-coloured chewy biscuits, or 10-11 minutes for crunchier ones.
6. Cool it for five minutes on the tray, before transferring it to a wire cooling rack. I usually lose my first tray of biscuits at this stage to whoever is in the house, which is why I cook them in stages :)

Storage

These keep in an airtight container for about a week to ten days. But I've never had them last that long. They do get chewier the longer they are kept.

Sanbusak - or Spicy Meat Triangles

When I was a small child, one of the things a parent could buy from the stores to make hors d'oevres was spinach and cheese triangles. There were also these lovely things called "Spicy meat triangles". I've never seen these as an adult when trying to find finger foods - it's all pastizzi and wontons (not that I don't love those too). So when I held a dinner party a few years ago that it was a bit retro, I really wanted to find a recipe to make some.

Taste.com.au to the rescue! Though I opted for the easier version, they were so good that two of my guests asked if there were leftovers to take home! This recipe makes about twelve triangles

Equipment

• Knife
• Chopping board
• Cup
• Frying pan
• Wooden spoon or spatula
• 2 small bowls
• Clean tea towel
• Pastry brush
• Baking tray
• Baking paper
• Microwave

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 small- medium onion or 1 large
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 500g minced lamb
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 50g packet of pine nuts
• 1 small bunch of coriander
• 1 small bunch of mint
• 1/2 large lemon or 1 small
• 2 pinches of salt
• 1 pinch of pepper
• Packet of filo pastry (should be around 350g) - you will have some leftover that you can try to freeze, but I haven't had much luck with it, so if you can get a smaller packet, do it.
• 125g butter (half a block)

Method:

1. Chop your onion finely.
2. Chop up your coriander and mint finely, and put them in the small bowl.
3. Squeeze your lemon into the cup.
4. Heat the oil in your frying pan over a medium heat (about 2/3 of the way on)
5. Add the onion and cook for about ten minutes - they should be soft and a bit translucent. 
6. Add the cinnamon, ginger and allspice, and stir in for about a minute or so, which should be enough time for the aroma to be really obivious
7. Add the meat and cook (breaking it up as you go) until it is browned - think of it as a savoury mince, so you want it to be quite mince-ish, rather than lumpy.
8. Stir in the tomato paste, pine nuts, coriander, and lemon juice.
9. Add your salt and pepper.

Put aside to cool for at least 20 minutes to let the flavours mingle. (In fact you can put it in the fridge for a few hours if put it in a bowl and cover it with glad wrap)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius.
2. Wipe down your bench, and dry it off.
3. Melt your butter in your second bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds on full.
4. Wet and wring out your clean tea-towel. You want it to be damp, not really wet.
5. Open your filo pastry packet, and unfold your filo pastry to full size, and cover it with the damp tea-towel.
6. Pull off one sheet, and brush it with butter using your pastry brush. Pull off a second sheet and set it down on top of the first. Brush the top layer with butter. Cut into three strips and then layer them on top of eachother, so you have 6 layers of pastry.
7. Place one heaped tablespoon of your spice meat at one end of the pastry strip. Fold the corner over the meat, so you make a pastry covered triangle at one end. Continue folding up the strip until your triangle is complete.
8. Place on the baking tray, and repeat this process until your baking tray is filled with triangles
9. Brush all your completed triangles with butter.
10. Put into the oven for 20 minutes.

Serving:

These are good served hot, warm or at room temperature, but not so good cold. They are a bit oily so one or two should be plenty. Or more if you want to serve them as a main (yes, with a salad they really are good enough to be your main).