Backstage baking - string section

Rachael Kirk, Viola - Chocolate Crunchy Biscuits

"This is a chocolate biscuit similar to afghan biscuits. This recipe makes about 40 (but you have to bake a double batch to make enough for the entire orchestra)."

Ingredients:

125 g butter

3/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 large egg

1 cup self-raising flour

1 ½ cups wheat flakes (or 6 crushed Weetbix)

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 C.

In a saucepan large enough to hold the whole mixture, melt the butter until barely liquid then remove from heat.

Add the sugar, cocoa, vanilla and egg, and mix well with a fork.

Add the flour and wheat flakes and stir until evenly mixed.

Place two teaspoons of mixture in compact heaps on a lightly greased baking tray.

Flatten unbaked biscuits gently using several fingers.

Bake for 8-12 minutes until they look evenly cooked but have not darkened around the edges. Transfer to a cooling rack.

You can ice with chocolate icing once cool but they are also delicious un-iced.

Lucas O’Brien, Violin - Macadamia Shortbread

Ingredients:

½ cup (100g) + 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar

42g unsalted or lightly salted macadamia nuts, chopped

2 and 1/4 cups (270g) all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

12 tablespoons (170g) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3/4 cup (111g) unsalted or lightly salted macadamia nuts, finely chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 160⁰C.

Line a 33cm x 23cm x 5 cm baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving a couple of inches hanging over each side. Butter the lining.

Combine ½ cup of sugar and the 42g of macadamias in the food processor. Pulse until finely ground.

Add the flour and the baking powder. Pulse until mixed. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is combined and powdery.

Press the dough firmly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top of the dough with water. Sprinkle the finely chopped macadamias and 1/3 cup sugar on top of the dough. Press firmly into the dough.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cookies are golden and firm.

While the cookies are still warm, use the overhanging lining to remove the cookies from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into squares using a sharp knife.

Let the cookies cool completely. They should become crisp as they cool. If they aren’t crisp after cooling, place them back in the pan and bake for 10-15 minutes at 150⁰C.

Stephanie Dean, Violin - Bill Granger’s Lime Slice

"This recipe is an old faithful at this time of year. It’s a Bill Granger recipe from the book Bill’s Food. This is actually the first year (out of six) that our dwarf Tahitian lime tree has decided to fruit, so I’ve been attempting to make this since Mother’s Day. One particularly small human in our household keeps hijacking all efforts to complete it."

Ingredients:

base

200g unsalted butter, softened and chopped

250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

30g (1/4 cup) icing sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

filling

6 eggs

375g (1 and ½ cups) caster sugar

60g (½ cup) lime juice

Finely grated zest from 4 limes

Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Grease and line the base and sides of a 23cm (9 inch) square tin with baking paper.

To make the base, mix the butter, flour, icing sugar and egg together in a food processor until a dough forms. Press the dough into the tin.

Refrigerate the dough in the tin for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180⁰C, then bake the base for 20 to 25 minutes, until pale golden.

While the base is cooking, make the filling.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl, then add the sugar, flour, lime juice and zest and whisk until combined.

Pour the filling onto the cooked base and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the filling is set and lightly golden on top.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin.

Cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar. Makes 12.