salted caramel chocolate chunk cookies

salted caramel chocolate chunk cookies

28 Sept 2026

As you're aware, I'm not much of a chocolate fan but I do love caramel. When I saw a recipe for nutty chocolate fudge cookies, I thought they'd be even more delicious if I used salted caramel instead of the fudge.

The recipe is quick and easy to put together but the batter is very soft. It needs a good rest in the fridge before it can be scooped out, so remember to factor that in when making these cookies. Once scooped you can bake the cookies straight away but I prefer to refrigerate the balls of cookie dough overnight then bake them the following day.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from this Gill Meller recipe, which makes 12 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. You'll need to make the caramel before making the cookies as it needs time to set. You'll only use a small quantity of the caramel which means you can eat the rest!

Salted caramel chocolate chunk cookies - makes 12 cookies

Salted caramel
1 x 375 g tin condensed milk 
45g golden syrup
30g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp sea salt flakes

Cookie ingredients

100g unsalted butter

100g light soft brown sugar

50g caster sugar

1 egg

dash of vanilla extract or ½ tsp vanilla bean paste

150g plain flour + ½ tsp baking powder

pinch salt

50g walnuts, coarsely chopped

75g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up

75g of your favourite fudge or salted caramel (recipe below)

1 or 2 good pinches of smoked salt flakes

Salted caramel
Line the base and sides of an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional.

Place the condensed milk in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for 7 minutes or until slightly thickened and lightly coloured. You can also microwave the condensed milk in a large bowl on high for 7 minutes, stirring every minute. Add the remaining ingredients to the condensed milk and stir thoroughly until well combined. 

Pour the caramel into the tin and using a knife spread it evenly over the base then sprinkle with sea salt flakes.  Return the slice to the oven and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until the caramel is golden brown and set. Loosen the caramel from the tin and cool completely before refrigerating. When cold, cut into small cubes.

Cookies

Heat the oven to 200°C, conventional and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Put both types of sugar into a mixing bowl, pour on the butter and beat well. Add the egg and the vanilla extract or paste and beat again until well combined. Sift the flour and the baking powder together into a bowl, then fold it in. Allow the mixture to cool for 15–20 minutes before stirring in most of the walnuts; most of the chocolate and half the fudge pieces/salted caramel. 

Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour before scooping tablespoons of the mixture into approx 47g balls. You can refrigerate the cookies at this stage or freeze them for later. 

When ready to bake, place 6 cookies onto each of the prepared trays, then distribute the remaining walnut pieces, the chocolate and fudge/salted caramel equally over the surfaces of the cookies. Sprinkle the cookies with the smoked salt and bake for 8-10 minutes. If chilled overnight, bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are lovely and golden. If baked from frozen you'll need to add a few more minutes to the bake time.

You can ‘scoot’ the cookies with a larger cookie cutter when they come out of the oven to neaten the cookies. Cool the cookies to 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once cool, store  the cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

These cookies are so delicious when still warm from the oven and keep well. If you'd like to get that just baked feeling, zap the cookie in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to melt the chocolate chunks and soften the caramel before eating. Delish!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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vanilla meringue cake with raspberries

vanilla meringue cake with raspberries

21 Sept 2026

I had a date with my favourite twin girls and I couldn't decide what to bake. They love chocolate, cream, custard and berries so I decided to make a meringue cake which I filled with cream and lemon curd. It wasn't the best choice of cake on a 33°C day. By the time I arrived at their place, the top layer had slid off the bottom layer on a slick of curd and cream. No doubt it still tasted delicious, but it didn't look so good. 

I decided to remake the cake, this time filling the meringue cake with cream and berries. Thankfully there was no car ride involved.

If you'd like to make your own version of this cake, here's the recipe for you which was adapted from a Belinda Jeffery recipe. I changed the proportions a little, increasing both the quantity of cake batter and the meringue layer. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Vanilla meringue cake with raspberries
Cake 
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
pinch sea salt flakes
3 egg yolks (from 60g eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (60ml) milk
25g almond meal 

75g SR flour
1-2 x 150g punnets raspberries
 
Meringue
3 eggwhites (from 60g eggs)
150g caster sugar
2 tbs flaked almonds
1 tablespoon caster sugar, extra

Cream filling
125ml thickened cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Butter two 17cm springform cake tins and line the bases with buttered baking paper. Dust the tins with flour, tapping out the excess, and set them aside.

Put the butter, sugar and salt flakes into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat them on medium speed for about 4 minutes, until they’re light and fluffy. Now add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each one is added. Reduce the speed to low and add the vanilla and milk – the mixture may look quite curdled at this stage, but don’t worry, it will be fine once the flour is added. Combine the almond meal and flour in a small bowl and mix to remove any lumps. Mix in the flour mixture just until it’s combined.

Divide the batter equally between the two tins, then spread it out evenly into a shallow layer using an off-set spatula. Set the tins aside while you make the meringue.

Meringue layer

Thoroughly wash and dry the mixer bowl and beaters. Add the eggwhites to the bowl and beat them on medium speed until they’re just softly fluffy. Now add the sugar, a little at a time, beating well between each addition, until the meringue is thick and glossy – all up, this takes about 8–10 minutes.

Divide the meringue evenly between the cake tins and use a palette knife to spread it over the cake batter as smoothly as you can. Scatter the flaked almonds over each meringue layer, then sprinkle the extra sugar over the almonds.

Place the tins on the centre rack of the preheated oven and bake the cakes for 25–30 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. The meringue may puff up a bit, but it will sink again once it cools.

Remove the cakes to two wire racks and leave them to cool in the tins for 8 minutes. After this time, release and remove the sides of the tins. Gently lay a sheet of baking paper over the top of one cake, carefully invert it onto a flat plate, remove the base and paper, then invert the cake again onto the cooling rack so it’s meringue-side up. Repeat this with the second cake. (The reason for the baking paper is to help stop the almonds dropping off as you invert the cake – you won’t completely avoid it, but the paper certainly helps.) If the tops look a little flattened from turning them over, gently ruffle them up with a fork. Leave the cakes to cool completely.

Close to serving time, make the cream filling. To do this, whip the cream and vanilla together until they’re thick and fluffy.

Assembly
Sit one cake layer, meringue-side up, on a serving plate or cake stand. Spread  the vanilla cream over the cake then  press the raspberries into the cream. Carefully sit the remaining cake on top, also meringue-side up. If the weather is cool, the cake will hold quite well like this for a couple of hours. Although the cake is best eaten the day it’s made, the filled cake can be stored covered in the fridge and served the next door. 

I shared the cake with my neighbours and it was well received. I'd like to make another version of the curd and cream filled cake, though next time I'll fill the cake once I've arrived at my destination.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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Gill Meller’s Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake

Gill Meller’s Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake

14 Sept 2026

When plum season rolls around I make plum cake and similarly when it's blood orange season I like to make a blood orange cake. I've had a look through my recipe index and I have at least 20 blood orange flavoured recipes, many of them cakes and all of them a little different. 

Some of the cakes are made with olive oil and many are butter based cakes made with almond meal and polenta or semolina instead of flour. I found this recipe from Gill Meller on the Stonegate Estate website. This is an almond meal and polenta based cake, so it's naturally gluten free. As I have a huge bag of raw almonds in the pantry I ground them to make some natural almond meal, which added some extra texture to the cake.

Here's the recipe for you which was adapted from this Gill Meller recipe. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

I baked the cake in a springform tin and secured the base with some foil to prevent leakage, but ideally use a regular tin. I baked the cake in a17-cm cake tin but I think it would work even better if it were baked in a 20-cm cake tin. You'd need at extra orange or 2 to cover the base and a reduced bake time of around 45 minutes. 

Upside-down blood orange and almond cake

For the topping
3 small blood oranges
2 tbs caster sugar

Cake ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
112g caster sugar
2-3 tbs finely grated blood orange zest
2 eggs
3 cardamom pods, bashed and seeds crushed
112g ground whole almonds
60g fine polenta
½ tsp baking powder
A good pinch of sea salt

To finish
2 tbs warmed apricot jam
1-2 tsp boiling water
squeeze of lemon juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Grease, flour and line the base of a 17-cm springform tin with baking paper.

Finely grate the orange zest and set aside. You should have 2-3 tbs of orange zest. Peel the zested blood oranges and slice them into ½ cm rounds, removing any pips as you go. Sprinkle the caster sugar over the base of the tin, then arrange the blood orange slices in a single, slightly overlapping layer.

Beat the butter with the caster sugar, crushed cardamom seeds, the blood orange zest until very pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix for another minute or two so it’s nice and light.

Combine the ground almonds with the polenta, baking powder and sea salt, then fold this mixture gently into the creamed butter and eggs.Spoon the batter carefully over the arranged orange slices, spreading it evenly without disturbing the fruit.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour in the preheated 170°C, conventional oven or until the cake has risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning it out so the blood orange topping is on display. 

I think the cake needs an overnight rest to mature before serving. If you'd like to glaze the cake, its best to do this just before serving as the glaze reabsorbs over time. To make the glaze, combine all the ingredients together then brush the fruit with the thinned apricot jam. 

The cake keeps beautifully for several days in an airtight tin and becomes more flavoursome over time. I put this to the test as I baked the cake just before heading out for a weekend away. When I returned the cake was even more delicious than when freshly baked.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

7 Sept 2026

I still rue the demise of the print version of Delicious Magazine because I like a hard copy from which to cook. Today's bake is a Michael James recipe which popped up on my Delicious Magazine IG feed. It looked appealling and best of all it was made with pantry items. I only needed to buy some more flaked almonds and the rest of the ingredients were already in my fridge or pantry.

One review I read complained that the cake batter was too generous for the tin size, and spilled out of the tin when baked. I adjusted all the ingredients down to fit my tin but even then the cake batter was close to overflowing during the bake. So I'd suggest filling the tin 2/3 only as it's inclined to rise during the bake.

Here's the recipe for you, adapted from this recipe, which makes a 7 cm deep 17.5 cm x 8.5 cm (base) loaf. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate cake with caramelised almond praline topping

Almond praline

35g unsalted butter, chopped

pinch seasalt flakes

85g brown sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 small orange
25g honey or golden syrup
80g flaked almonds

Cake ingredients 
114g plain flour
35g dutched cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
pinch fine sea salt
150g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
85g buttermilk

Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan-forced/170°C, conventional. Grease a deep 17.5 cm x 8.5cm (base) loaf pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Almond topping

Melt the butter, sugar, orange zest and honey or syrup in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and syrupy. Pour the syrup into the prepared pan, then sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over the top. Set aside to cool while you make the cake batter.

Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and the fine salt together into a medium bowl, then set aside. 

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. With the mixer still running on a slow speed, gradually add the egg to the butter mixture a little at a time, ensuring each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Alternate between adding a third of the dry ingredients and a third of the buttermilk to the mixer bowl, mixing well between each addition, until all the ingredients have been added and the batter has just come together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the batter is completely mixed.

Gently pour the batter into the pan over the almonds and caramel, ensuring the tin is only 2/3 full as the cake will rise. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes at 160°C fan-forced/170°C, conventional, or until the top is firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then set a wire rack over a tray lined with baking paper. Invert the still-warm cake onto the wire rack, then gently lift off the pan, being careful to avoid touching the caramel, which will still be extremely hot. 

Scrape any leftover almonds and caramel left in the pan onto the loaf. Cool completely before serving. 

This makes a deeply dark cocoa flavoured cake with a lovely almond praline topping. I think it would eat better with a more even cake to praline ratio so I might remake it as a slice or squares. Watch this space!

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rosinenschnecken

rosinenschnecken

31 Aug 2026

Last year I attended a conference in Freiburg, Germany. I'd heard good things about a bakery in Freiburg called Brotbruder so I made my way across town. The bakery was busy with a queue outside, always a good sign, and I treated myself to a Rosinenschnecken, aka, a raisin snail.

The snail was lovely and I wanted to recreate it when I came home. I had little to go on because all the recipes I found online didn't match the snail I'd consumed. From my memory the dough wasn't sweet and there didn't appear to be a frangipane or custard filling. The roll was topped with a shiny glaze, which may have been the only sweetening.

I used my foolproof overnight rise dough, topped it with a vanilla butter filling and plumped sultanas. I baked half the batch and covered each snail with lashings of vanilla flavoured glace icing as they came out of the oven. I was quite disappointed. I found the snails tooth achingly sweet so for the second batch I remade the glaze with lemon juice which I drizzled over each snail.

These snails were so much better then the first batch. They were smaller than the Brotbruder snails though so I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit and see if I can get a snail even closer to the original. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 snails and you will have to make the dough a day or 2 before making the snails. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Rosinen Schnecken

Dough
1¼ tsp yeast
150 mls lukewarm milk
30g caster sugar
1 room temperature egg 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
60g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the filling
75g sultanas (golden raisins)
50g unsalted butter, softened
55g caster sugar
1 tbs almond meal
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch seasalt flakes

Assembly
Melted butter/beaten egg/cream

Icing
150g icing sugar, sifted
1-2 tbs lemon juice
 
Dough
Grease a large plastic container and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and sugar in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been incorporated (about 10 minutes) increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, and the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. 

Transfer the dough to the prepared container. Cover the container with a lid or with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the container and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the container and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Replace the lid or tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

Whilst the dough is resting, prepare the sultanas. Place the sultanas in a small heatproof bowl, then cover with ½ cup of boiling water or tea and steep for a minimum of 1 hour.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge. Flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature.  

Filling
Thoroughly drain the sultanas, then make the filling by mixing the remaining ingredients into a smooth paste.

Assembly

Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Roll the dough out into a rectangle measuring about 40 x 25 centimetres. Spread the filling evenly over the dough then sprinkle with the drained sultanas. Place the dough with the short side in front of you and use a ruler and a sharp knife or pizza cutter to mark out eight 3-cm slices. Roll each slice firmly to form a tight roll then place 4 snails onto each prepared tray with plenty of space between the snails. Cover the trays with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise for 1 hour or until puffed and well risen.

While the buns are proofing, preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. When the buns have proofed, brush the tops of the buns with the beaten egg, melted butter or cream. Place the tray of buns onto the centre rack of the oven then bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack.

Glaze
Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice until you have a smooth thick glaze. Liberally drizzle each snail with the glaze while they are still warm and let cool before serving.

These are best served the day of baking but can be kept overnight in an airtight container and served the next day.

I froze 2 uncooked buns and pulled one out to defrost and bake when the need for a raisin snail arose. I can confirm they freeze really well and are a real treat when eaten freshly baked and iced.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart

24 Aug 2026

I was invited to a friend's place for dinner and I usually bring the dessert. As it's rhubarb season here I decided to make a rhubarb frangipane tart but with a twist. Instead of making the frangipane with almond meal alone, the frangipane was made with a mix of pistachio and almond meal. The idea came from Nicola Lamb's fancy rhubarb tart recipe which is in her cookbook, Sift.

I sourced some pistachio meal but I find the taste of pistachio meal a bit intense so I added in some almond meal to balance out the flavour of the frangipane. The rest of the tart is a tried and true recipe that I've been making for many years.

Here's the recipe for you which makes an 11 x 33cm tart. You’ll only need about half the pastry for this recipe. The pastry freezes well, so wrap securely and freeze until needed. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C. 

Rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart 

Filling  
1 bunch of rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 10-cm lengths
85g caster sugar 
thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange  
1 cinnamon quill  
 
Pastry  
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/25g almond meal 
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 
110g cold unsalted butter, diced 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
Cold water 
 
Frangipane 
100g unsalted butter 
100g caster sugar 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
2 tsp grated orange rind 
1 large egg 
50g pistachio meal
50g almond meal 
2 tbs plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes 

To assemble
½ cup rhubarb or raspberry jam
Sieved warmed apricot jam 

Method 
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Arrange rhubarb snugly in a baking dish, scatter sugar and orange peel over, drizzle with juice and add cinnamon quill. Cover with foil and roast for 5-10 minutes or until you can just pierce the rhubarb with a knife. Set aside to cool. You’ll need about 325g of the rhubarb slices. I like to cook the rhubarb juices until they form a syrup, which I then mix with apricot jam when glazing the tart.

Pastry

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thickness. Line a rectangular (11x33cm) tart tin with the pastry and return to the fridge while you prepare the filling. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the centre rack.

Filling 
Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and orange rind together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg  followed by the flour, ground nuts and salt to form a soft batter. You can also do this step in the food processor.

Assembly 
Remove the tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with the jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife then arrange the rhubarb lengths over the frangipane filling. 

Place the tart on the baking tray in the preheated oven. Reduce the oven to 190°C, conventional and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. If the rhubarb is drying out too much cover with foil or baking paper. When baked, remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam. Just before serving, unmould from the tin and cut into slices.

This received rave reviews from the dinner party guests who declared it the perfect mix of sweet and sour and that it needed no adornments.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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