Westgold Great Bakers' favourite cookies

Avis Owen’s Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients

2 sheets of puff pastry - or be good and make your own croissant pastry/dough
225g cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
¾ cup mixed half half of smooth peanut butter and chocolate chips

Directions:

Beat sugar, cream cheese and vanilla together until smooth and creamy
Leave the pastry sheets on the blue plastic paper and place on the bench
Spread the cream cheese mixture over the top of the pastry, leaving a 1/2 inch gap at the edges
Drop choc chips & peanut butter on cream cheese mix and press lightly into the pastry
Roll the pastry sheet up tightly using the blue paper as a guide, peeling it off as you go and wrap the roll in glad wrap
Place in freezer for at least 2 hours
Once chilled, line a baking sheet with baking paper (prevents sticking)
Slice the roll into 1/4" slices (They won’t keep the precise round shape)
Bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown
Be careful removing them to the cooling rack as they will be super-hot!
As an option, you can sprinkle with icing sugar or drizzle with lemon glaze icing - lemon juice mixed with icing sugar to pouring constancy - or melted chocolate. Also very nice with a scattering of toasted slivered almonds/pecans/walnuts on top!!
enjoy!!!!

Neelu Singhal’s Sweet & Salty Cumin Seed Cookies

Mild sweet, a bit salty with the flavour of nutty cumin seed.
This is our family's all-time favourite.

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour ( i used wholemeal flour)
80 gms Westgold butter
1/2 tsp salt
30 gms caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder ( optional , can be skipped but I added )
1 tblsp cold milk
1 and half tblsp cumin seeds toasted

Directions

Preheat oven at 170 degrees for 10 minutes with the greased and lined tray in too
First beat butter sugar and salt till light and fluffy
Add sifted flour and baking powder and lightly toasted 1 tblsp cumin seeds
Mix all together and use milk for binding and making dough
Roll out to a half inch sheet,, cut into shapes and sprinkle cumin seeds on top
Bake at 170 degrees until light golden for approximately 15 minutes

Ridhwana Mahomed’s Rafaello Biscuits

Ingredients

125g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup chopped pecans or almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup corn flour
1 3/4 cups flour to make dough
Melted Milky bar chocolate any white choc will do (about 250g)
Coconut for rolling biscuits

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar well.
Beat in oil and then add dry ingredients and nuts.
Make into a soft dough.
Roll into equal size marble balls and bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Allow to cool before removing from tray
Dip biscuits in melted milky bar chocolate and roll in coconut

Fiona Smith-Edge’s Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour
1tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
75g butter (diced)
¾ cup grated tasty cheese
5-6 Tbsp milk (approximately)

Directions:

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cayenne pepper
Rub in the butter with your finger tips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs
Add the grated cheese
Bind to a soft but not a sticky dough, with the milk
Form into a rectangular block, wrap and chill for 10 minutes
Roll the pastry out to 3mm thickness on a lightly floured board, rest and cut into straws or rounds.
Bake at 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Ashleigh McMillan's Frankenflour Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients

250g of any mix of the following: almonds, oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, coconut blitzed into a “flour”.
Pinch of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
100g of dates
85g of that good good Westgold
100g dark chocolate

Directions:

Pour boiling water to cover your dates. Let sit for 5 minutes, drain, add butter and then blitz into a paste. Butter should melt fully. Microwave if needed.
Let cool for a little so not to melt the chocolate.
Blitz up your frankenflour, add salt, baking soda and chopped dark chocolate.
Mix the dates and butter into your dry mix until a dough is formed.
Roll into balls (I use a 1.5 tablespoon measure) put onto baking tray.
Cool for 10 minutes in the fridge to firm up, then bake at 180 for 10-15 minutes.

Tabitha Hinewai’s Monte Carlos

These were my favourite thing to get, a delicious chewy coconut biscuits filled with cream and raspberry jam.

Ingredients

180 grams’ butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups (185g) self-raising flour
3/4 cup (105g) plain (all-purpose) flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2/3 cup (50g) desiccated coconut
1/3 cup (110g) raspberry jam

Vienna cream

60 grams’ butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup icing sugar
2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

Beat butter, vanilla extract and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until just combined. Beat in egg. Stir in sifted flours, soda and coconut, in two batches.
Roll two level teaspoons of mixture into ovals; place on trays about 5cm (2 inches) apart. Flatten slightly; use the back of a fork to roughen surface.
Bake biscuits about 7 minutes. Lift biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

Meanwhile, make Vienna cream:
Beat butter, extract and sifted icing sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in milk.
Sandwich cooled biscuits with Vienna cream and jam.

Suzannah Wansbone’s Fridge Cookies

You can vary up the filling additions with nuts, different types of chocolates, dried fruit, bits of chopped Jersey caramels, m&ms or crushed candy cane for Christmas cookies.
The salted butter, the rolling of the dough and the refrigeration are key, as is the demerara sugar on the edges - it adds the perfect crunchy texture as it cooks. These are more of a brown sugar shortbread than a traditional chocolate chip cookie as they have lots of delicious butter in them.

Ingredients:

225g cold salted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
170g ounces semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped (but not too fine, you want chunks, not thin shards of chocolate)
1 large egg, beaten to blend
Demerara sugar (for rolling)
Flaky sea salt

Directions:

Using an electric mixer and a medium bowl or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until super light and fluffy, 3–5 minutes.
Using a spatula, scrape down sides of bowl. With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour, followed by chocolate chunks, and beat just to blend.
Divide dough in half, then place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. Fold plastic over to cover dough and protect your hands from getting all sticky. Using your hands (just like you’re playing with clay), form dough into a log shape; rolling it on the counter will help you smooth it out, but don’t worry about getting it totally perfect. Each half should form logs that are 2–2¼" in diameter across log. Chill until firm, about 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°. Line a rimmed baking sheet (two, if you’ve got 'em) with parchment paper. Brush outside of logs with egg wash. Roll logs in demerara sugar (this is for those really delicious crispy edges).
Slice each log into ½"-thick rounds. Arrange on prepared baking sheet about 1" apart (they won’t spread much). Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake cookies until edges are just beginning to brown, 12–15 minutes.
Let cool slightly before eating them all.

Do Ahead: Cookie dough can be made 1 week ahead. Tightly wrap in plastic and chill, or freeze up to 1 month.
Cookies can be baked 5 days ahead. Store in plastic wrap or an airtight container.