Chocolate chip cookies

Again ! We're now stuck in house moving hell - it was all going fine. A completion date agreed and we were ready to roll. Hurrah we thought. No. Suddenly our buyers solicitor started dragging his feet and not returning calls to our solicitor. Our first exchange date came and went and then suddenly we were looking at it being very tight to make our second exchange date and thus completion. After a few frantic phonecalls it would seem that the idiot solicitor can't tell the difference between the 5th and the 15th *imagine me banging my head against a wall here*. SO, the upshot of it all is that we are having to shunt everything on 2 weeks. I am beyond cross and very frustrated about the whole thing. I'd quite like to take out my frustration on said solicitor but I'll just have to imagine that in my head !!

Anyway, this has meant that I've been seriously running down the fridge, freezer and cupboards in preparation for moving, only to find I've got another 2 weeks to feed my family before I can do a good restock. This is the explanation of the lack of blog posts. It's hard to blog when you're eating increasingly bizarre freezer teas.

Today in desperation the boy and I made chocolate chip cookies and God they were GOOOOD ! It made everything slightly more bearable. These cookies have the right amount of squidgy and crunch and a batch really isn't going to last the day. I originally got this recipe from a fellow blogger a long time ago. It's so long ago though I've forgotten where and when so I can't even name check them - so sorry to whoever you are and thanks for the greatest cookies !

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
makes approx 18

100g butter - I have also used Stork and it was fine
75g soft light brown sugar
2 T golden syrup
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g chocolate chips - you can sub nuts, fruit or anything really here, all yummy.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Then add the syrup, vanilla and flour - it will get really tough to mix now ! Finally add the choc chips.
Spoon onto baking trays in little balls and spaced well apart
Bake at 180C for 8-10 minutes. They will be very soft when they come out of the oven but that's fine.
Cool on a wire tray and try not to scoff all at once.

Pikelets

I wanted to make pikelets as I'd just discovered a recipe on a forum I use. When I was a kid my Aunt who had lived in New Zealand, used to make these with me and we'd eat them warm from the griddle or cold with butter and jam for tea.

PIKELETS (with thanks to Jann !)

Make loads but be prepared for them all to be eaten on the same day !

2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp cream of tartar

2 eggs

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp golden syrup

Mix all the ingredients apart from the butter and syrup in a large bowl

Melt the butter and syrup over a low heat and add to the other ingredients

Lightly butter a large frying pan or griddle

Cook the mixture in tablespoonfuls for a couple of minutes each side until brown

Serve warm or cold as they are or with butter and jam or even whipped cream !

Scones

What a lovely day and no evidence at all for the rain we've been promised. After a long bike ride this morning and a lovely lunch with two glasses of wine, I decided to do some baking this afternoon to fend off the impending wine induced snooze. Chocolate tiffin done and chilling I thought about scones so here we go...


SCONES

Makes about 10

This is my Mum's recipe. I have yet to have a duff batch from this recipe and they are some of the best I've tasted too.

8oz self-raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1.5oz butter

1.5oz sugar

2oz sultanas

1/4 pt of milk

Pre-heat oven and baking sheet to 230C

Rub butter into flour

Stir in sugar and fruit

Add milk and using a knife mix to soft dough

Turn onto floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to about 3/4 inch thick

Cut out scones and brush tops with milk

Put onto hot baking sheet and bake for about 10 mins until risen and golden.

Vanilla shortbread

After a very successful trip to our local farmers market yesterday I came home with, amongst other things a kilo of rhubarb. As we had friends over for lunch today I thought I'd make something with that for pudding but I needed something crunchy to go with it. After searching through seemingly endless recipes I found this recipe on the Nigella website.

There is always a bit of a debate about salted vs unsalted butter for baking. I never buy unsalted butter as I really don't like it so therefore I never use it in baking. I've not really noticed a difference and it never seems to affect the end product. Just my twopenneth there !

VANILLA SHORTBREAD
makes between 25-30

100g icing sugar
200g plain flour
100g cornflour
200g softened butter
seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Sift the icing sugar, flour and cornflour into the bowl of a food processor
Add the diced butter and vanilla seeds
Process until it all comes together and forms a dough
Press into a swiss roll tin. It will seem ages but it will all fit with some encouragement
Score into the required number of biscuits and use a fork to prick each one
Bake at 160C for 20-25 minutes
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then remove to a wire rack

You can discard the vanilla pods once you've scraped out the seeds but I added them to my sugar barrel to make the most deliciously scented vanilla sugar.

Banana bread

I first encountered this when the Husband and I were on honeymoon in St Lucia. Slabs of this were served at breakfast with the most amazing selection of fruit. Since we came back I'd tried loads of different varieties but none quite matched up, I began to wish I'd asked the hotel for the recipe !

I can't remember where I got this recipe from but it's the nearest that I've found. It's so easy to make too and uses up all those bananas that are a bit too black to eat. I often freeze left over bananas just to make this cake. It's moist (I hate that word) and tasty - try it !

BANANA BREAD

2oz butter
4oz golden caster sugar
8oz self-raising flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 ripe bananas mashed
4floz milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2.5oz of walnut pieces (or any fruit/seeds or nuts will do. I've used blueberries here too)

Cream the butter and sugar together
Sift in the flour, bicarb and baking powder
Add the rest of the ingredients
Tip into a small greased loaf tin and bake at 180C for 50 mins

30 days / 30 things Day 29 & 30

Nearly there, I will finish this by the end of September which is partly why I'm doing these last two posts together.

This post is about a cookery quick fix and my favourite cake. These couldn't go more hand in hand that with this recipe. It's so easy, not even any weighing - just a bit of measuring. The recipe does use cups but it's either an excuse to treat yourself to the lovely Nigella Lawson ones or get a cheapy set from a supermarket. The results are amazing and this is a cake that my family ask for again and again ! I often do it as a birthday cake as the picture below will show, done for my son's 2nd birthday.

EASY PEASY CHOCOLATE CAKE

185g butter at room temperature cut into cubes

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups sugar

2 cups plain flour

1 cup cool tap water

3 eggs

2/3 cup of cocoa

Grease and line two sandwich tins, preheat the oven to 180C

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and using an electric whisk on low speed slowly combine

Increase to high speed and mix for 3 minutes until looks pale. It make look a little curdled but that's ok

Tip into the tin and bake for around 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean

I use whipped cream and black cherry jam to sandwich this together and then use the icing below (from Nigella's custard sponge cake) to tip over the top. It sets fast to if you're decorating it, be quick ! I've never used all of this though so maybe 1/2 the recipe ?

60ml water

2tbsp golden syrup

125g caster sugar

175g dark chocolate broken into small pieces

Heat the water, syrup and sugar in a pan over a moderate heat. Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and beat until the chocolate has melted and the icing is thick and shiny. 

Tip over the cake.

30 days / 30 things Day 15

GAH ! I'd just caught up and then I forget to post yesterday, I truely am rubbish with this......

Day 15 is a dream meal. There are just so many possibilities for this that I could write for days. Currently I think my dream meal would be one I didn't cook, see I'm easily pleased really. But no, I will go further than just a meal that someone else cooks and washes up from.

I was thinking about this this morning while on the cross-trainer at the gym, I'm sure there is something very wrong with that but hey ho it got me through. It's not just about the food, it's about the location and the company too. There are just so many options it made my head spin ! Do I go for a Michelin starred restaurant or do I go for the beach bar serving amazing seafood ? Town or country, hotel or at home ? Friends, family or both ?? In the end I decided on something really simple and surprised myself. There were two options but I will save the other option for another post.

My dream meal would be at my house with my closest friends and their kids, my husband and our kids and a gorgeously informal meal with everyone pitching in to help and plenty of good wine. Food wise I think it'd be something simple but really well cooked like a big pot of chilli that everyone can just dive into and help themselves. I'd serve it with a choice of jacket potatoes or rice with all the accompanying bits and pieces like tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and cheese. For pudding I'd serve something gorgeously gooey and chocolatey that everyone would love.

These chocolate brownies are the best I've ever tasted and I cook them time and time again. Either serve just as they are or with really good quality vanilla ice cream, raspberries and raspberry coulis to really posh them up.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES (from Fiona with thanks xx)
makes a pan full !

100g butter
50g cocoa powder
2 eggs
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g self-raising flour
50g chocolate cut into small chunks or 2 mars bars cut up

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a baking tin (8 in square by 1.5in deep)
Melt the butter and sift in the cocoa powder, making sure there are no lumps
Beat the eggs and then stir in the sugar and vanilla
Add to the butter and cocoa mixture
Sift in the flour and then finally stir through the chocolate
Pour into the baking tin and bake for about 20-25 mins
Turn down the oven by about 20 degrees and bake for another 10 mins
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 mins before cutting up

These should be lovely and gooey in the middle, just try not to eat them all at once

Fire engine cake & football cake

It's son no 2's birthday on Tuesday. Always an emotional time for me but now he's 3 it seems my baby is well and truely growing up *sigh*

Today we had the family round for a bit of a do and I decided to make his cake for today.  Son no 2 decided he wanted a fire engine cake. When I agreed I really didn't think it was going to be that difficult but Oh My God ! I was covered in icing sugar, food colouring and bits of cake and thank God it turned out ok. At least he recognised what it was !

Side view

Back view

Front view

I used a basic sponge mixture in a 9 in square deep tin and then just cut and stacked to get the right shape. It was sandwiched with strawberry jam and buttercream. Brush the cake with warmed apricot jam and then red "ready roll" icing over the top. The decorations were split Oreo cookies for the wheels, licquorice allsorts for the lights and sirens and a licquorice wheel at the back for the hose. Otherwise I used a black food writing pen and white "ready roll" icing for the rest. The ladder was a curly wurly !

BASIC SPONGE

enough for 9in cake tin

8oz soft butter

8oz golden caster sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature

8oz self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time, each with a spoon of flour to prevent curdling

Add the vanilla and then fold in the flour

Transfer to a greased and lined tin

Bake at 180 until the top is springy and a skewer comes out clean

Cool on a rack

For the butter cream use 1/2 butter to icing sugar so here I used 3oz butter to 6oz icing sugar.

Apologies for the imperial measurements here but for some reason I can only bake sponges in imperial !!

As we're on the subject of birthday cakes, below is a picture of the cake I made back in June for son no 1's 7th birthday.

Lemon muffins

Muffins, the bane of my life. I'm talking American cake-y muffins not English ones here - just to clear that up !

I love the big fluffy muffins rich with fruit and even more perfect with a little drizzle of icing too. But, can I perfect them at home ? Can I hell. I HATE having baking disasters and courtesy of an exceptionally rubbish recipe sourced from t'internet that is exactly what I had last weekend.

I really fancied a lemon and poppyseed muffin and below was the kind of thing I was hoping to achieve.

Let's just say that mine looked nothing like that and tasted even less like it. To be fair even my in-laws didn't really go for them.

So, I'm now on the hunt for the perfect muffin recipe. The Husband and the Kids are just pleased that they're getting to try all the rejects !

Blueberry and apple loaf cake

Yesterday we had my Mum coming over for dinner, she was coming straight from work so I thought I'd be the dutiful daughter and make sure there was tea and cake waiting for her when she got here.

I love fruity cakes and this is one of those recipes which has been lurking in my "to bake" folder for ages. I think it's originally a Good Food recipe but I can't really be sure. Anyway it's a lovely cake and went down a storm - with everyone apart from son no 1 who doesn't like blueberries apparently although he liked them last month !

It is a rather unusual cake mix though as it comes out of the processor almost dough like and needs pressing into the tin (use floured hands !) rather than pouring like a lot of cake mixes.





BLUEBERRY AND APPLE LOAF

225g self raising flour
pinch of salt
125g butter diced
2 eggs
75g golden caster sugar
2 eating apples, peeled and sliced
125g blueberries
2 tbsp apricot jam melted
Whizz the flour, salt and butter in a processor until crumbly
Then add the eggs and sugar and whizz again.
Grease a 900g loaf tin and put half the cake mix in then sprinkle over half the fruit.
Repeat with the other half of the mix and fruit.
Bake in a 180C oven for about 50 mins to an hour until done (I slightly over-did mine).
Melt the jam and brush over the cake when out of the tin.
Leave to cool before slicing.

Chocolate crispy cakes

Well the mojo has been well and truely lacking here in the last few weeks.


Sadly that's partly due to circumstances, having a nightmare at work and being too tired to think about meal planning. So, we've been living off left overs out of the freezer aka "freezer surprise", quick meals and takeaways.


But that will all end ! I have a week off, I've made an appraisal of my cupboards and freezer and will be back on the cooking trail asap.


For the moment I've just made chocolate crispy cakes with son no1 after faithfully promising him for the last 2 weeks that we'll make these. It's the tried and tested favourite of kids parties everywhere and not that you'd need a recipe but in case you do...


CHOCOLATE CRISPY CAKES
makes about 24


120g good quality milk chocolate
2 heaped tablespoons golden syrup
40g butter
70g rice crispies
1 small bag of mini eggs

Melt chocolate, syrup and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of water (or bain marie if you're posh)
Stir in the crispies until coated
Spoon into cases and decorate with whatever you fancy ! We used mini eggs here.

Homemade hobnobs

Last year I got into quite a good routine of baking on a Sunday afternoon. Very restful - apart from when son no1 wants to get involved - and gave me something homemade to put in lunchboxes the following week. Not wanting to be a smug Mummy about it, but I'd prefer my kids had a home made biscuit or piece of cake rather than a pre-wrapped chocolate biscuit.

Anyway, I fell out of the routine and son no 1 has been begging me to start again. So today I found a recipe on the money saving expert website for "home made hobnobs". Biscuits are not normally something I'll have in the house because of the temptation issue rather than anything more "pure" than that ! The Husband knows never to buy milk chocolate digestives but he can buy dark chocolate ones as I don't like them - good job he prefers them.

So, my house currently smells lovely and toasty with the smell of freshly baked biccies and oh my God, they are seriously LUSH. I've just had two (see what I mean ?!) with a cup of coffee and could easily eat a couple more, but won't.


HOMEMADE HOBNOBS
makes about 30

8oz sugar - I used light brown soft sugar
8oz butter
8oz self-raising flour
8oz porridge oats
1 tblspn golden syrup
1 tblspn hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and hot water over a low heat
Add the bicarb
Add to the oats and flour and mix well
Place small spoonfuls onto baking trays spaced well apart and flatten slightly
Bake at 180 for 15 minutes until golden
Allow to firm up slightly on the tray before transferring to a wire rack

Pink fairy cakes

I decided I needed to get my baking mojo back. A few months ago I was doing loads of baking with my able 4 year old helper, but just slipped out of the habit of doing it. So, with a day at home looming I thought we'd spend the afternoon making cakes. After a bit of negotiation we decided on fairy cakes - down from dinosaur biscuits, flapjacks and chocolate cake !

The boy being a, errrrrrrrr boy ? Wanted pink fairy cakes !  These really were true works of art, and didn't taste that bad either.

PINK FAIRY CAKES just for Alex !

Makes 12

4oz softened butter
4oz golden caster sugar
2 large eggs beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
4oz self-raising flour

Heat the oven to 180 C and prepare a 12 hole bun tin
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
Add the eggs and vanilla a little at a time with a little flour to prevent it curdling
Fold in the rest of the flour
Divide mixture between the cases and bake for 10-15 mins until risen and bounce back to the touch

For the icing

1.5oz softened butter
3oz icing sugar
a few drops vanilla
a splash of milk to loosen if needed
a few drops food colouring - we used red
hundreds and thousands

Cream the butter and sugar together with the vanilla and milk as needed then add the colouring

When the cakes are cool ice liberally and then roll in the hundreds and thousands.

Stand back and admire your handiwork !!

Spiced apple muffins

I thought I'd easy myself back in gently with some baking today as I was not feeling so bad this morning - shame it's all come back now though !

The little one loves baking with me but the lure of playing in Daddy's shed this morning was just too much, so I had the bliss of pottering around my kitchen with the radio on & cooking at my speed and not constantly having to watch out for flying eggs (I kid you not !) and fingers going near melted butter etc.

This was a recipe I have shamelessly lifted from another blog but oh my God they are amazing and am ashamed to admit two have gone already in the 2 hours since they've been out of the oven - no wonder I'm feeling sick again !

I did find here though that Nigella's advice of lumpy batter = light muffins worked once again !

SPICED APPLE MUFFINS
makes 12

250g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
100g of golden caster sugar
1 egg
5 fl oz/150 ml milk
170g finely chopped apple (peeled and cored)
85g butter, melted
80g sultanas
50g chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees (I used 190 deg for a fan oven) and prepare muffin tins

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spice. Stir in the sugar.

Beat the egg and add the milk followed by the apple, melted butter and raisins.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Because the apple releases its juices whilst cooking it's quite a dry batter.

Spoon into tins and bake for 20-25 mins.