Daring Baker challenge to come tomorrow...

Today is meant to be my posting date for the Daring bakers May challenge, but I have been a very slack daring baker of late and I intend to finish off my challenge tonight. I figure that when I am posting on the morning of the 28th in NZ, it is still the 27th for most of the Daring Bakers in the rest of the world!!

So, I thought I would share with you these cookies that I made last week for a staff member’s birthday, and also the lovely dinner we had on Monday night. The cookies are simply shortbread, which I iced with white royal icing and then did a purple swirl on top. So simple, but very effective, I think. They tasted good. I find that shortbread holds up to the icing and the cookies don’t soften as much as when you use cut out cookie dough.

Dinner on Monday night was chicken. I baked the breasts in the oven with a crumb topping made with fresh breadcrumbs, chopped olives, parmesan cheese and basil. We had them with a potato and pumpkin gratin (thinly sliced pumpkin and floury potatoes layered with chopped garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper, covered in chicken stock, sprinkled with grated cheese and baked for about an hour) and peas. The peas were frozen peas that I cooked, then stirred through torn mint leaves, crumbled feta and a drizzle of good olive oil. The meal was lovely, but my favourite part was actually the peas. Adding the feta, mint and olive oil took them to a new level and made a very humble vegetable the stand out portion of our dinner.

Daring baker challenge tomorrow – I promise!