Ta DAh! Suprise!

It is my priviledge to host the Hay Hay it’s Donna Day #3 competition.

So who is Donna Hay? She is a cookbook authoress who also has her own magazine. She is beloved because of her great sense of style and her easy to make recipes… her peanutbutter self frosting cupcakes spawned a recipe making chain reaction in the food blog scene last year, they were so popular they triggered Barbara to initiate the Hay Hay it’s Donna Day Food Event, where we take one Donna Hay Recipe and compete to see who’s version reigns supreme!

I am running, oh, um, very behind in my hosting of the event, but I am so sorry! The lovely Barbara the ultimate hostess, has been soooo understanding. This was partly because the first time I made them the temperature ws over 30c and the dough melted. So I froze the dough and then assembled them a few weeks later, my photos are very sparse though becuase I wasn’t sure I would still use the recipe and they were eaten/snaffled to fast! This is how I knew that I should try them again

Remember the Bunrabs?
Well now everyone who voted and … everyone else has to participate in the next event. Want to know why? 1) Cause …. I said so, 2) There are cool PRIZES . Yep PRIZES!!! and I am pretty happy with them, a packet of Donna Hay Rosewater Shortbread and a set of METRIC measuring cups and spoons. Why do you want a metric set? So that you can’t make great Aussie (+British , NZ and everyother classy country’s) recipes without the dreaded Math.

Since you are now convinced that you MUST enter due to the chances of winning fabulous prizes you want to know what you have to make. For Christmas Caseys wonderful parents bought me a 2 year subscription to the Donna Hay Magazine, so I wanted to ensure that my recipe came from the first issue!
I show you Checquerboard Snap Cookies!

I wanted something that is easy to make, fun, potentialy challenging and able to be changed, played with and adapted to your hearts content. *Note Rules*. I tought about going head and going completly c~r~a~z~y with my interpretation, but I decided that isn’t my role as hostess… But I did fiddle, I made mine in a spicy mexican flavoured chocolate and vanilla. I wasn’t able to find square cookie cutters so I give two alternate methods to assemble the cookies.

Rules
Who can enter? ANYONE! Have a blog? Make the cookies!
Entries must be emailed to me at eatstuff at gmail dot com by 1st June 2006
Cookies MUST HAVE ATLEAST 2 FLAVOURS
Cookies MUST HAVE ATLEAST 2 COLOURS
Winning Cookie will be chosen by a poll … which will either be by email or some polling system I make casey build….. he owes me……. But I will let you know the method at the round up.

RECIPE — ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE METRIC
Here is the official Donna Hay Conversion Chart

185 gms butter (6 1/2 ounces)
1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plain flr (all purpose)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup cocoapowder
(I added cinnamon and Indonesian Chilli powder to mine, it was really good!)
1 tbsp milk

preheat oven to 180 C (355F).
Place the buter, sugar and vanilla ina food processor and process til smooth. Add the flour egg and egg yolk and continue til a smooth dough forms.
Remove half the dough and set aside. Add the cocoa and milk to the processor and process for 1-2 mins or until just combined. Remove the dough and roll betweern 2 sheets of bakingpaper until 5 mm or 1/4 inch thick. Repeat with plain vanilla dough. Use a square cookie cutter* to cut out squares arrange on baking sheet lined with baking paperto for cheqerboards. Repeat
Bake for 10 - 12 mins until crisp and golden. — You just lay the squares right next to each other they will stick together when they bake.

*Alt method 1) Use a ruler and a knife and cut small squares, can be fun and fiddly, esp if you want to make small squares
*Alt method 2) Divide the 2 doughs and make long thin logs, join the together and then cut 1 cm thick slices. You will need a sharp knife.

Most Important thing to remember HAVE FUN!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 9:19 am and is filed under Recipes, Food Blog Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.