Competition time right on time for Mothersday.

One of the things I love most about Mothersday is that "pretend to be asleep hearing the scurrying in the kitchen and acting all surprised". The joy on those faces and the very special act of making mom something is priceless. In the same breath we honour our own moms.

The lovely people at Sasko have not only given me the perfect recipes for you to bake for your mom or the family to bake for you,  but two lovely hampers worth a R1000 each to give away to treat yourself or your mom the choice is yours. In any event if you love baking like we do take some time to make these heart-warming cookies as a gift for your mom: Rooibos Biscuits dipped in white chocolate, Jasmine Tea Biscuits with dark chocolate and Goji berries and Earl Grey Biscuits with orange frosting.

Fragrant Jasmine, delicate Earl Grey and our very own South African favourite Rooibos – these teas are all perfect for using as an ingredient. Simply choose the tea that your Mom enjoys the most, empty a few teabags and mix the tea leaves in with the rest of the ingredients.  

 

Earl Grey Biscuits with orange frosting

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treat Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Earl Grey tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

Icing:

250g icing sugar

70ml orange juice

1 tsp orange zest

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before icing.)

Mix the icing sugar, orange juice and zest together in a bowl and, using the back of a teaspoon, smear a small circle of the icing onto each biscuit. Allow the icing to set completely before storing in an airtight container.

 

Jasmine Tea Biscuits with dark chocolate & Goji berries

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treats Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Jasmine tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

200g dark chocolate

50g goji berries

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before dipping in the chocolate.)

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler on low heat on top of the stove.

Dip half of the tops of each cookie into the melted chocolate, sprinkle over the goji berries and place on a sheet of baking paper to dry.

Allow the chocolate to set completely before storing in an airtight container. (This will take a few hours.)

Top Tips:

• If the tea leaves seem overly large simply pulse them a few times in a food processor until they are smaller in size.
• If you don’t have a double boiler you can use a heatproof bowl that fits snuggly on top of one of your pots – it needs to fit tightly as you don’t want any water from escaping steam to mix with the chocolate, as it will cause the chocolate to congeal. It’s also important that the water in the pot does not touch the bottom of the bowl as it could burn the chocolate.
• If you are baking all of the cookies at the same time make sure that you keep a good distance between the baking trays in the oven to ensure that there is even heat distribution

Rooibos Biscuits dipped in white chocolate

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treats Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Rooibos/Chai Rooibos tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

200g white chocolate

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before dipping into the chocolate.)

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler on low heat on top of the stove.

Dip half of the tops of each cookie into chocolate and place on a sheet of baking paper to dry.

Allow the chocolate to set completely before storing in an airtight container. (This will take a few hours.)

 So now that you have the baking sorted, lets get to the best part of all. To stand a chance to win one of two Sasko hampers worth R1000 (I wish I could keep one because they are great and who does not love Carroll Boyes and baking goodies?) do the follwing:
1. Leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite thing to bake AND "like" Sasko's Facebook page.
2. For an extra entry tweet about the competition mentioning my Twitter handle @catjuggles

Each hamper consists of:

Carroll Boyes Recipe book stand

Sasko branded baking items

6 x Sasko Quick Treats & 4 x 1kg Cake Flour 
Competition closes at 12 noon on Friday 9 May . 
Winners will be chosen from a numerical sequence by random.com and announced here and on Twitter.
Prizes will be dispatched and delivered by Sasko and open for South African residents only. 

Note:  We have received nothing in return for running this competition. I just love to give something away.