Bakeproof: Cookies in a hurry

Meet our everyday baker, Anneka Manning. Each fortnight, she'll be sharing her baking rituals, modern and ancient, and baking techniques from around the world. This week, she shares secret to making cookies in a hurry – a food processor.

I’ve been making biscuits since I was a little kid – crunchy Anzacs, buttery shortbread, savoury cheese biscuits, chunky triple-chocolate cookies, sweet florentines and delicate tuiles have all been part of my repertoire. But I especially like the fast and super-easy ones that are big on the more-ish front.

I remember watching my mum adapt a Toll House cookie recipe to save time – she multiplied the original quantities by eight (yes, eight!), ditched the “creaming the butter and sugar” step and melted them together in a saucepan instead. In a beautifully memorable ritual, the huge yellow bowl would be fetched from the walk-in pantry (no kitchen cupboard was big enough to house it) and the impressive amount of melted butter and sugar mixture would be added. Then we kids, sitting on the benchtop, would stir in the mass of eggs (16 of them, from memory), flour, bicarb soda and chocolate chips using a sturdy wooden spoon. Then our little hands would get rolling, the trays would go into the oven and, soon, all four biscuit tins would be filled. It was such an incredibly simple and effective method for getting lots of biscuits made in limited time.

Now that I have my own kitchen, the trusty food processor and a good recipe are my best friends when I want to make cookies in a hurry (although I still take the extra five minutes to do it the old-fashioned way when I’m in the mood). So here are my four favourite quickies – melt-in-the-mouth chocolate and hazelnut shortbread, lovely and satisfying oat biscuits (reminiscent of those good old English digestives), crisp and delicate chocolate and macadamia wafers, and light and savoury parmesan and poppy seed biscuits. Turn on the oven, get mixing and you’ll have the biscuit jar full before you know it!

 

Cookie recipes

1. Chocolate and hazelnut shortbread

2. Oat biscuits

3. Chocolate and macadamia wafers

Source: Supplied

4. Parmesan and poppy seed biscuits

Parmesan and poppy seed biscuits Source: Alan Benson

Anneka's mission is to connect home cooks with the magic of baking, and through this, with those they love. Read our interview with her or for hands-on baking classes and baking tips, visit her at BakeClub. Don't miss what's coming out of her oven via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

Photography by Alan Benson. Styling by Trish Heagarty. Food preparation by Wendy Quisumbing.

 

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