Lemon Slice

Lemons are the only fruit growing in our backyard - anything else has been destroyed by possums - so recipes with lemon juice are always popular. This is one of the best. My youngest daughter keeps complaining that she has one square when she makes this slice and the next time she looks it's all gone. It's that sort of slice.

Lemon Slice

Ingredients

1/2 cup condensed milk
125g butter
250g sweet biscuits (Nice or Milk Arrowroot biscuits are local types that work well - basically any sort of reasonably plain biscuits will do)
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 cup coconut

Lemon Icing

1 3/4 cups icing sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
15g butter

Method

Put condensed milk and butter in a saucepan, stir over low heat until butter is melted.
Crush biscuits finely, add lemon rind and coconut. Mix well.
Add warm condensed milk and butter mix. Mix ingredients together by hand.
Press into greased lamington tin (28cm x 18cm).
Refrigerate for one hour.
Ice with lemon icing.
Cut into squares when the icing has set.

Icing

Combine sifted icing sugar, softened butter and lemon juice in a bowl. Beat till smooth. Spread on cooled slice.

Choc Chip Cookies

Baking together is one of the pleasure of family life and I have fond memories of my older and younger children gathered around the kitchen bench taking turns stirring the ingredients for this recipe and turning lumps of biscuit dough into balls.

The size of the balls varied a lot - some favour very big biscuits, others lots of small ones - but this is one recipe that is always a hit, whether cooked till crisp (my choice) or removed from the oven when lightly browned and still slightly squishy (tops with the younger members of the family).

Many of their friends have tucked in to a box of these biscuits at bring-a-plate functions and the box always seems to come home empty.

Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

125g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
185g chocolate chips

(My favourite is a mix of dark chocolate bits, milk chocolate bits and some dark chocolate buttons but any mix will do, although most need to be the smaller choc bits rather than buttons to aid even mixing).

Method: 

Cream butter and sugars, add vanilla essence. Add egg and beat well (mixture should become paler). Mix in sifted flour and salt. Add choc chips and mix well.

Shape teaspoons of mixture into small balls (about the size of a walnut). Place on a lightly greased tray, leaving room between the balls to allow for spreading (so about 12 on a typical small tray, 15 on a larger one). Bake in a moderate oven for 12 minutes. Makes about 36-40 biscuits.

(The spoons of mixture my children use end up more like golf balls than walnuts and need to be placed further apart on the tray as they spread while cooking - and they never seem to end up with more than about 24-30 biscuits).

Whatever the size, the biscuits are ready when the tops are lightly browned. The biscuits become crisper when they cool down so do not need cooking till crisp. Experiment with cooking time to find your favourite degree of doneness. Experimenting when cooking is half the fun - the other half is eating the results.

PS I'll try to add a photo next time I make a batch.