Sweet, sugary goodies

With the silly season about to launch into full swing, I thought I'd share some quick and easy recipes for some yummy treats.

Truffles

'Truffle' is a very broad term these days, and if you don't have the time (or the inclination) to do the whole chocolate dipping thing then these are for you.

These are made with ganache. For this recipe, you need a firm setting ganache that can be rolled into balls. I make mine with equal parts of chocolate and cream - the quantities are up to you, depending on how many you want to make. I used 200g chocolate to 100g cream, but you can multiply this recipe depending on how large a batch you want.

I rolled the white chocolate ones in icing sugar and the dark chocolate ones in cocoa.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

These cookies are devine and the best bit is that they keep for a week or so - perfect for unexpected Christmas guests!

125g butter, cubed and softened (room temperature is good)

1/2 cup brown sugar, tightly packed

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 3/4 cups self raising flour, sifted

3/4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly broken with mortar and pestle

1 cup white choc chips (I just chop up white chocolate)

Preheat oven to 180c (160c fan forced). Cream butter, sugar and extract until smooth and creamy. Add egg and mix until well combined. Gradually add flour and leave the mixer on full until mixture binds together. Stir in nuts and chocolate. Take teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls. Place on baking tray a couple of centimetres apart and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until brown. I take mine out at about 13 minutes as I prefer mine a bit chewy.

Delish!