Mrs Booth's Crumbly Crunchies

My sister and I both have fond memories of these biscuits, we always knew as 'crumbly crunchies', that our childhood friends' Mum used to make. These are much like melting moments, but a little lighter and not sickly sweet like melting moments can sometimes be. It had been over 20 years since I had tasted one of these, until I was lucky enough to get the recipe last night. Today I converted the recipe for the Thermomix and they turned out just as I remembered them. Depending on the size you roll them, this should make around 55 individual biscuits, which you then sandwich together.

Mrs Booth's Crumbly Crunchies
Ingredients

280 grams Plain Flour
120 grams Custard Powder
130 grams Cornflour
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 teaspoon Bicarb of Soda
175 grams Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
190 grams Caster Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence


Biscuit Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Add caster sugar to TM bowl and pulverise for 10 secs spd 9. Add butter and chop 5 secs spd 8. Insert butterfly and whip the mixture for 90 secs spd 4. Add eggs and vanilla. Whip for 10 secs spd 4. Remove butterfly. Add remaining ingredients and mix for 30 secs spd 6, using the spatula to incorporate the ingredients as it is mixing. This is quite a dense mixture before baking. Roll into small balls, approximately 1.5cm diameter. Place on baking paper lined oven tray. Ensure you leave enough space between as they do spread. Slightly flatten each ball by pressing gently with a fork. Bake for 10-12 mins or until biscuits are firm. Don't allow them to brown. Place on wire rack to completely cool before icing.


Icing
Ingredients
220 grams Icing Sugar
2 teaspoons Butter
4 desertspoons water
Cochineal or pink food colouring

Icing Method
Add water and butter to TM bowl and cook 50 degrees 90 secs spd 2. Add icing sugar and blitz for 15 secs spd 4 or until the mixture is a nice, thick, spreadable icing. Add more water if needed, but don't allow to become runny. Add a couple of drops of pink colouring and blitz again on spd 4 until colour is evenly distributed. Use icing to sandwich biscuits together.

Orange Sesame Bliss Balls

Now there are a million Bliss Ball recipes around at the moment. I tend to just whip them up with whatever I have leftover in the pantry. This recipe is a combination of a couple I have been given. You can easily tweak it to include/exclude whatever you want, just ensure you keep the texture relatively consistent. You may like to reduce the orange zest in this recipe if you find it too strong.

Orange Sesame Bliss Balls
Ingredients

200 grams Medjool dates
50 grams cashews
1/2 orange zest
30 grams oats
2-3 Tablespoons sesame seeds to roll balls in

Method
Blitz dates, cashews, orange zest and oats in Thermomix bowl for 10 seconds on speed 10. Form small balls and roll in sesame seeds. Makes around 16 balls. Keep Bliss Balls in the fridge. Can also be frozen.



These can obviously be made in a normal food processor, you will likely just need to blitz for longer to ensure the orange zest has been completely dispersed through the mixture.

Given these contain cashews and sesame seeds, they aren't school lunchbox friendly. But you could substitute the cashews for more oats, you may just need to add a tablespoon of boiling water to bring it together. You could then coat in coconut.

Carrot Cake Porridge

This recipe has been adapted from Sinead Dyer's post on the Thermomix recipe community. It's a bit of a play on Sarah Wilson's "I Quit Sugar" Carrot Cake Porridge Whip. As someone with a real weakness for raw cake mix, I loved the resemblance this porridge has to carrot cake batter.  Both my 3.5 year old and 9 month old baby loved it-such a great way to smuggle an extra vege into their diet. I have blitzed the carrot in mine so that there are no chunky bits for my boys to discover, but you could certainly leave it a little chunkier if you prefer. This recipe has got just the right amount of spice and sweetness, without any added refined sugar. In my house, this is enough for 2 adults or 1 adult and 2 small kids.

Carrot Cake Porridge

Ingredients

2 pitted dates or 1 Medjool date

1 carrot, unpeeled, chopped into thirds

60 grams oats

145 grams milk

145 grams water

Handful sultanas

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

Handful walnuts and blueberries to serve.

Method

Blitz carrot and dates on speed 10 for 5 seconds. Scrape down bowl and blitz for another 5 seconds on speed 10. Add all other ingredients (except walnuts and blueberries) and cook for 10 mins at 90 degrees, speed 2, reverse. Serve topped with a small dash of extra milk, the walnuts and blueberries, plus a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, if you need the extra sweetness.