White Chocolate and Cranberry Matcha Tea Trees for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Despite the lack of activity this year I knew I wasn't going to miss out on the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  I had so much fun doing it last year that as soon as applications opened, I signed up. The fact it is for charity is just a bonus really.

"The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap brings together food bloggers from around the world in celebration of all things scrumptious. The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgement either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next year’s cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.

This year we are again excited to be partnering with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a national non-profit organization committed to funding new therapies used in the fight against paediatric cancer, which claims the lives of more children in the US than any other disease. By participating in this cookie swap you are not only contributing to the food blogger community, but also supporting a great cause."

If you are interested in taking part next year you can sign up to be notified when next year's cookie swap opens.

Now (some of) you know me: I like to get inventive for this.  I also like to get festive.  Hence why last year was a take on a classic Christmas flavour (gingerbread) mixed with a little extra of what reminded me of the start of the season (cola).  This year was going to be no different.  I wanted something different from the usual chocolate chip, shortbread or gingerbread (not that I would complain if I received any of those myself).  I cannot remember what got me on to looking at matcha tea as an ingredient but once I had it I wondered about adding more Christmassy ingredients to it, namely cranberries and white chocolate (a popular combination with the Hubby).  And since matcha is green, I thought it would be so cute to make them look like Christmas trees!

The main research for this went into finding a recipe that used matcha and produced a cookie that would hold it's shape by baking.  Of course, I started early in case this bizarre idea turned out to be a disaster.  I required the Hubby's approval and was really unsure if I would get it with these.  Matcha is a bit out there.  I made up a small batch of the recipe I found and conveniently it made exactly one dozen cookies.  I used the tree cutter I had at the time but ended up buying a new one specially for the final ones because the shape looked too much like a holly leaf.  I tentatively offered one to the Hubby, saying I wouldn't be offended if he didn't like it.  As you've probably guessed though, he did like it.  In fact, he loved it and scoffed my whole batch!

I needed to be prompt with getting my cookies done and sent.  December is a busy time at school, even if I'm only working part-time.  I had to prepare my dough on a Sunday, cut and bake 3 dozen on the Monday after I got in from work and then finally photograph and package them on Tuesday, ready for the Hubby to take to the Post Office on Wednesday.  I really had to be strict with myself.  There were several moments where I wanted to just curl up on the couch and sleep.  I also annoyed my cats by shutting them in the hall so I could do my photography.  It is a bit of a problem living in a small flat with two nosy kittens who want to climb on your equipment.  Even more so when there are pretty ribbons all over the place!

Worth it though! I loved how my cookies turned out and I'm really hoping Claire (Clairey Fairy's Cooking), Alicia (Beef and Brioche) and Laura (Foodie Laura) enjoyed them!

I know I have been enjoying what arrived for me not long after: 

Soft Ricotta Cookies with Almond Icing from Iris at Whatever Gets You Through The Day	Chocolate and Candycane Cookies from Karen at Yankee Doodle Paddy	Mint Chocolate Snowball Cookies from Marsha of Marsha's Baking Addiction

The Hubby and I have been steadily scoffing our way through all these delicious bakes from three lovely ladies.  We also took some to share when we went to dinner at the in-laws and they very much appreciated it.  The Hubby says the cookie swap makes this the best time of year!

Recipe - adapted from Just One Cookbook

Makes 36 cookies

• 360g/12.5oz plain flour
• 22.5g/0.8oz matcha tea powder (green tea powder)
• 225g/8oz unsalted butter
• 195g/7oz icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 150g/5.5oz white chocolate chips
• 100g/3.5oz dried cranberries

1. Sift the plain flour and matcha into a bowl.
2. Cream the butter, icing sugar and salt together until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the egg yolks and beat in well.
4. Add the flour and matcha mix gradually to the butter.  Beat mixture until a soft dough forms.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips and cranberries.
6. Shape the dough into 3 equal rounds and wrap in clingfilm.  Chill in the fridge overnight.
7. Line a few baking trays with baking parchment.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 7mm/0.25inches and cut into Christmas tree shapes using a cutter.  Place the cookies on the tray.
9. Put the cookies in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2.
10. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Allow them to rest on the tray for a couple of minutes after removing from the oven before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Cola Gingerbread Men for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

My oh my, baking has been even more lacking.  Work is hard and distressing right now and not looking to get better any time soon, hence the sheer amount of not posting there has been.  Sorry.  But you don't want to hear about that, you're here for cookies!  Specifically, for cookie swap cookies!

I stumbled across the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap last year, after it had closed.  I was really disappointed as it looked like such fun!  So of course I immediately added myself to the mailing list so I would not miss out next time.

It wasn't until mid October that I began to wonder about whether or not the swap had opened up again.  I hadn't received any email saying so.  Some investigation revealed that yes, it had opened up, and that my email had ended up in the Junk folder.  A good thing I checked or I'd be sitting out this year too!  So I got signed up and then began plotting.

The idea for the cookies came from a book I was reading.  In the story one of the characters is a chocolatier but at one point it mentioned cola gingerbread.  Well, I was intrigued.  What an interesting idea and rather ideal for a festive gift.  Gingerbread is very Christmassy, as far as I'm concerned.  The cola is an added bonus as I have always felt that the Coca-Cola advert with the trucks and the song and the lights is the first sign that it is almost Christmas!  I don't care about what's on sale as soon as Hallowe'en finishes, it's not the festive season until Coca-Cola announces that the holidays are coming!

Anyway, I ended up having to experiment with this recipe for a couple of weeks as there was not an existing recipe for cola gingerbread cookies (that I could find).  So I was having to tamper with an existing recipe.  For my initial batches the shape held up but they caught very easily and the cola flavour was rather too subtle.  So I had to increase the amount of syrup to improve the flavour.  Unfortunately that meant the cookies spread.  Not such a big deal really, except that it meant I couldn't do my original idea for the final look.  Based on something I had seen on Pinterest, I wanted to have my gingerbread men hugging their cola bottles.  This was also part of the experimentation.  It worked well in the early batches but wouldn't in the later ones.  Flavour trumps aesthetics though for me so I just went with the spreading batches and used icing to attach the cola bottles to my little men.  Not quite as lovely but still rather cute.  The only other problem this caused was that packaging the little guys was a bit of a curfuffle as some of the bottles would come away from the hands.  I managed it in the end though and it seems they arrived fairly intact at their various destinations! 

And once my own cookies were away, the ones from the lovely bloggers who got me in the swap started arriving!  It was kinda fun to get mystery boxes of cookies.  I didn't eat any until the weekend though since the Hubby and I decided to pack them all up and take them to Glasgow with us as we were away for a shopping weekend.  You can see them in all their delicious glory in the pictures below.  From top to bottom: Cranberry, White Chocolate and Sea Salt cookies from Ellie of RovingLights; Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kirsty of Ever So Sweet; and Oat and Maple Syrup Biscotti from Tina of The Worktop.  Thank you so much, ladies.  These were scrumptious and the Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed them!

I am hoping my swapees liked their cookies just as much.  I can tell you that we certainly enjoyed eating the spares.  I'm not much of a fan of gingerbread and even I was scoffing them without thinking.  They're a slightly soft cookie which are not too hot.  The ginger and cola mix nicely, especially when you eat the cola bottle with the cookie.  Yum yum!

Recipe - adapted from Home Baking Biscuits and Cookies
Makes 36

• 350g/12oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 175g/6oz light brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 tbsp cola syrup
• 2 tbsp golden syrup 
• Decorative sugar balls
• 36 cola bottle sweets
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• Cold water

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line a few baking trays with greaseproof paper. 
2. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger together in a bowl.
3. Add the butter in pieces and then rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the sugar and then make a well in the centre.
5. Add the egg yolk, cola syrup and golden syrup and mix together.
6. Knead into a smooth dough.
7. Sprinkle a clean surface with flour and roll out the dough to about 5mm/0.25inches thick.
8. Cut out gingerbread men with a 10cm/4inch cutter.
9. Space out well on the tray as these cookies spread.  Create eyes and buttons by pushing the sugar balls into the dough.
10. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown.
11. Remove and allow to rest on the tray for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
12. Once cool, mix the icing sugar with a little water to get a fairly thick icing.
13. Place a blob of icing on one of the hands of each of the gingerbread men and stick a cola bottle sweet to the blob.  Leave to set.

Great British Bake Along: Paprika Thins

It's the weekend so we know what that means!  It is time for:

We're now two weeks into the Great British Bake Off and round 2 was biscuits.  It came up much sooner than the past couple of years but I was rather thankful it fell on this week as biscuits take less time than most things and I had a second bake planned since it is the Hubby's birthday this weekend (post to come later this week).  But before we get into the bake, let's talk bakers!

Once again, we had three interesting challenges.  The signature bake was to produce 36 savoury biscuits.  Admittedly I don't feel I can comment much on this one as I am not an eater of such things.  I am not a crackers and cheese girl, despite my love of cheese.  So I couldn't say if what they were doing was anything special.  Admittedly, I thought Martha was mad to make sandwich biscuits because then she was making 72 not 36 but good for her for pulling it off.  I didn't think Diana's really counted as biscuits given they were made with pastry, though again she was also mad because she made her own puff pastry and they only had two hours?!  I remember thinking Norman's were a bit boring and simple as well.  In fact, most of the things Norman did this episode were too simple.  It was a bit disappointing.

The technical challenge was florentines.  Now, I've made florentines before but don't make them very often because they always cause me bother.  Every time I have made them they have adhered to the paper they were cooked on and I've had to painstakingly remove it after baking.  It is so frustrating so I was watching intently to see if any of the bakers had the same problem.  Apparently not!  I want to know what paper they were using!

Then there was the showstopper.  Oh, I would be quite frustrated with this one because it is so fiddly!  A scene constructed entirely of biscuits is not an easy task, but this is the showstopper so it wouldn't be.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.  Some of the designs though!  Just...wow.  Luis's was ridiculously good.  Especially since he chose fiery flavours for the dragon.  That was clever.  Richard's was also amazing.  That interlocking sea monster was just a work of genius.  It's not really a surprise he won this week.  These two are definitely ones to watch.  I'm also keeping an eye on Chetna and Jordan because I really like them!  And I think Martha is due a win (even though I'm still horribly envious).  She doesn't seem to have done anything wrong so far and yet has been beaten out of Star Baker each week.

As for who left this week, I admit I did not think it would be Enwezor.  I really thought it would be Norman, though the Hubby pointed out that Norman had received compliments in the first round.  Enwezor had not had much in the way of praise.  It was sad.  I liked his rocket!  And props to him for baking with children attached to his legs when he is at home.  I don't think I would have the patience for that!

Next week is bread.  I'm thinking Norman may do rather well on this one.  He strikes me as a bread man.  Guess we shall find out on Wednesday!

Right, so onto this week's bake.  Like last week I decided I would take on the signature challenge.  I rarely make anything savoury so this would make a nice change.  Luckily, my lovely yellow biscuit book has a section on savoury biscuits so I ran options by the Hubby and his mum and sister, since they would be the ones eating them, and these paprika biscuits won.

A biscuit dough often is, this wasn't too tricky to put together.  I had it made in 15 minutes.  In fact, the whole process was actually pretty quick.  Even though I could only fit 12 biscuits in my oven at one time, I was still finished all 36 well before the 2 hour limit was up.  I even ended up redoing the first 12 after I'd initially cut them out because I realised I had split the dough wrong (and I'm supposed to be good at maths!).  So this is a fairly quick bake.  And very simple.  I always appreciate something quick and simple, especially when I am pressed for time because there are other things to be making.

They turned out rather well though I don't think I would be complimented on my presentation.  Whilst the bake seemed to be fairly even, they do vary in thickness ever so slightly.  The thickest ones could have done with a couple more minutes baking, but it was hard to tell since they are still soft when they come out the oven and firm up as they cool.  Some also went a little wonky when baking.  Other than that though they were okay.  The paprika was not as strong as I thought it would be but I discovered my paprika was out of date...and as we learnt on GBBO this week, that weakens the flavour.  Should have opened my new packet.  They were still enjoyable though and go very well with cheese.  I'll be making them again with in date paprika and they should be even better!  

Recipe - adapted from Home Baking Biscuits and Cookies

Makes 36

• 345g/12oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 170g/6oz oatmeal
• 3 tsp paprika
• 3 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 170g/6oz butter
• 6 tbsp soured cream or yoghurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 3 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the flour, oatmeal, paprika, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix together.
3. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Gradually add the soured cream (or yoghurt) and bring the mixture together to form a smooth but firm dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 0.5cm/0.25inches thick.
6. Use a round 7.5cm/3inch diameter cutter to cut out the biscuits and place onto the prepared trays. 
7. Prick each biscuit with a fork.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a light golden brown.
9. Allow to rest on the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Easter Bunny Tea Cakes

It's a new month and so there's a new Dessert Challenge to take on.  This time is Marshmallow and White Chocolate with an Easter theme!

So, once again, things did not go to plan on the first attempt for this challenge.  I had intended to keep it simple.  No-bake even!  I was going to attempt rice krispie treats that were cut into rabbit shapes with a cookie cutter and glazed in white chocolate.  It sounded simple enough.  Turns out it wasn't.

Now, I have to confess, I have never made this kind of thing before.  I've coated rice krispies in chocolate: that is the extent of a krispie treat for me.  Fusing it all together with melted butter and marshmallow was completely new territory. But it shouldn't be that hard, right?  Well, the problem I had was with ratios.  All the recipes I found were American and the cups measurement annoys me.  I also only had 170g/6oz of marshmallows and the local shop did not have any more so I was trying to work with that too and adjust things accordingly.  It seemed to be going okay.  I got a nice goopy mess to throw my rice krispies into and it went into the pan fine and was easily pressed into place.  Problem was that when it had set it was really quite hard and when I tried to cut it everything crumbled (and a fair bit went all over the floor).  It was most annoying.  So then I was stuck with a dilemma.  Do I start over, but use marshmallow cream instead of actual marshmallows because I had none of those left and I can make the cream from scratch?  Or do I try and do something else, again with cream instead of actual marshmallows.

After brooding most of the day I had come to a vague conclusion that I could make some sort of brownie (I was thinking lemon because we all know that goes great with white chocolate) with a layer of marshmallow cream on top which would be cut and covered in the glaze.  Similar idea to the krispies really.  However, I couldn't help but think that the marshmallow cream would not be stiff enough.  Maybe I should make actual marshmallows (it is something I want to try at some point) or see if I could find something that would hold its shape better.  It was during this train of thought that I remembered that during Great British Bake Off 2012 they had made marshmallow to go inside tea cakes.  Perhaps that would be a better consistency.  So I pulled out the book and found the recipe.  And that's when it hit me: why not make tea cakes?  I had acquired the mould for doing so over a year ago and never gotten around to it.  I could do the shell in white chocolate instead and decorate them to look like rabbits!  I could even flavour the biscuit with lemon!  I was so pleased with the idea that I immediately got to work and they were practically finished by the end of the night (I did the faces the following morning).  And you know what, they were a much better idea than the original.  GBBO and Mary Berry save the day again! 

Now, it may look a bit daunting but the individual parts of this recipe are actually fairly simple.  I'll admit, I did have a fight with the biscuit dough.  It was very crumbly (but that might be me messing with the recipe by not using half wholemeal flour and half plain because I had none of the former) and there was only just enough to make 6.  But really, its just a few steps that take a lot of time and patience.  Unfortunately, it is one of those recipes where you won't know if you've messed up until almost the very end since everything is hidden inside the moulds.  The most nerve-racking bit is removing the tea cakes from said moulds as so many things can go wrong.  Maybe the seal wasn't perfect and so the base comes away from the shell.  Or the shell is too thin and breaks as you try and get it out of the mould.  Or, as was the case for me, the chocolate has bloomed!

Oh I was so unhappy.  Everything had been going so well.  But the chocolate bloomed and so I have some rather unsightly white patches on my pretty cream bunnies.  They have not affected the taste but they do make them look less appetising.  I have taken advantage of the wonders of modern technology to make it less obvious in the photos (a little dishonest, I know).  But the chocolate shouldn't have bloomed.  That is not the fault of the recipe.  That was me clearly making a mistake, and I think I know what it was.  I was really concerned about the shell being too thin because I could just see traces of pink (the colour of my mould) through the chocolate already setting.  So I thought I would add a second layer, just to be safe.  Unfortunately I was a bit silly and remelted some of the chocolate I had left and applied it to the shells whilst it was still too warm.  So that would have messed with the fats and cocoa butter and resulted in bloom.  At least, that's the only reason I can think of.  The main cause of bloom in these is apparently cooling them in the fridge, which I made sure not to do.  Ah well.  You can also see my joins are not perfect.  And my biscuits are actually on upside-down.  That latter one I will blame on the recipe because I got really confused by the instructions. 

But despite blooming bunnies, these things did come out intact and they are amazing.  The chocolate is a little thick (again, that's down to me being paranoid) but once you break through...my goodness these are delicious.  The three flavours are just so good together, though they are very sweet.  The fiancé really likes them.  His exact words were, "I would punch someone in the kidney to get the last one!"  Which translates to an 'A' rank apparently. ('C' is, "I wouldn't say 'no' if offered another," and 'B' is "I would push past people to get one".)  He also has no complaints about them needing to be eaten fairly quickly and has bravely accepted the challenge of devouring them all within the next day or so.  I'll need to be on the ball to make sure I get one myself!

 

Recipe - adapted from The Great British Bake Off: How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers
Makes 6

This recipe requires a 6-hole silicone semi-dome mould with the holes having a maximum diameter of 7.5cm/3inches

Shell:

• 300g/10.5oz white chocolate

Biscuit Base:

• 100g/3.5oz plain flour (or 50g/1.75oz plain flour and 50g/1.75oz wholemeal flour)
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 25g/1oz caster sugar
• 25g/1oz butter
• 1.5 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp lemon extract

1. Break up the white chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl.  Sit the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until smooth.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool and firm up slightly.
2. Make the biscuit by first combining the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl.
3. Cut the butter into pieces, add to the dry ingredients and rub in with your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and there are no large lumps of butter left.
4. Add the milk and lemon extract and work into the mixture with your hands until it comes together to form a very stiff dough.
5. Cover a tray with baking parchment.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 0.5cm/0.25inches thick and cut out circles using a cutter the same width as the moulds being used.  (The original recipe is 7.5cm/3inches, mine were 6.5cm/2.5inches.  Don't go bigger than 7.5cm/3inches as you won't have enough dough).
7. Place on the prepared baking tray and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes whilst you preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. 
8. Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes, until just firm then remove and allow to cool on a wire rack.
9. Make sure the semi-dome mould is clean by giving all the holes a quick wipe with some kitchen roll.
10. Pour about a tablespoon of chocolate into each hole.  Use the back of the spoon to start spreading it over the inside of the domes and then tip and swirl it about so that all the inside is covered in a layer of chocolate.  (This is a long, slow process so be patient).  Try not to make the chocolate too thin or too thick since you neither want it to break or be to hard to bite through.  (Mine was a bit too thick...)  The chocolate should thicken up as you do this, meaning less with pool in the bottom of the moulds.
11. Leave the chocolate somewhere cool to set, but not in the fridge.
12. Once the biscuits have cooled, dip them into the remaining white chocolate to coat them completely then leave them to set on a sheet of baking parchment.

Marshmallow:

• 3 egg whites
• 150g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Seeds of half a vanilla pod

1. Put all the ingredients in a large, heatproof bowl and place over a pan on simmering water, without the bowl touching the water.
2. Use an electric whisk to beat the ingredients together for several minutes until you get a glossy meringue with very stiff peaks.
3. Remove from the heat and beat for several more minutes until the mixture is thick and cooled.
4. Leave until it is completely cold.

 Assembly:

• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate
• 60g/2oz milk chocolate chips

1. Melt the white chocolate as before and then leave to cool until it thickens up and reaches a piping consistency.
2. Put the melted chocolate into a piping bag, and the cold marshmallow into another.
3. Remove the biscuits from the paper and place with the flat side down (so the way they were sitting on the parchment).
4. Fill each of the set chocolate domes (still in the moulds) by piping the marshmallow inside.  Fill up to the rim of the domes then run a knife flat along the top to remove any excess.  Wipe off anything that got on the outside of the moulds.
5. Pipe a little bit of white chocolate onto the marshmallow and then a ring of it around the edge of each biscuit.
6. Place a biscuit (chocolate ring side down) on top of each marshmallow-filled dome.  Smooth the join with a knife.  If necessary, pipe a little more chocolate around the edges to fully seal the domes so no marshmallow is visible.
7. Leave to set in a cool place (again, not the fridge) until completely sealed together.
8. Whilst you wait, melt the milk chocolate chips as you did the white chocolate and then set aside to thicken up to a piping consistency.
9. Carefully remove the domes from the mould. (I found that if I tugged the mould away from the edges carefully first, I could then gently pop them out one by one).
10. Put the melted milk chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a small, round tipped nozzle then pipe ears, eyes, noses and tails onto each of the domes to create bunnies.  Leave to set.
11. Store in an airtight container in a cool place (not the fridge) and consume within 2 days.

Orange Biscuits

 

 

Oh dear, oh dear.  There is so much disorganisation going on for me right now.  I am afraid I must warn you, dear readers, that my second school placement for my university course has begun and, like last time, the baking is going to take a bit of a hit.  It already has and this blog post has been about two weeks in the making.  It is shocking.  But I was determined to get it up today because there's no way I could not have something go out on the blog's second birthday!  That would be awful.  Of course, I would have preferred a special bake specifically for celebrating the event but that has been delayed.  So I'll be doing a belated birthday post (with much gushing and nostalgia I am sure)...once I figure out what to make.  Yeah, I'm that disorganised right now. 

Luckily though, the next two weeks are the Easter holidays and whilst I should be using them to get a large chunk of my work out of the way I will also have some time for baking.  At the very least there will be the April Dessert Challenge, along with that delayed birthday post.  So I won't be vanishing completely.  Things are just going to be a little slow around here for a couple of months.

Anyway, lets get on to biscuits!  

Back at the start of March I got to go on a merry jaunt to Edinburgh to see my good friend Jess for movies and lunch and shopping.  I went with good intentions in terms of the shopping.  I was planning to get the lace for my wedding dress and a proper cake tester since I'm tired of the holes my bamboo skewers leave when I use them.  That was all.  Unfortunately, I was weak and came away with much more than I intended.  Amongst my unexpected purchases was a new recipe book all about biscuits and cookies.  I really couldn't resist as books with just biscuits in seem to be really hard to come by and biscuits are easily my favourite thing to make.  Plus it was only £3.99!  Also yellow.  I'm terribly attracted to yellow things.  Anyway!  It is fabulous.  So many recipes, several of which are for classic British favourites like Digestives and Nice and Bourbon and Custard Creams and Hobnobs.  The list goes on.  I am going to have to try out the one for Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies and see if they turn out better than the last recipe I tried that claimed the same title.  Honestly, I was not sure where I was going to start with this book.  There were so many recipes that I was itching to try!  In the end though, I settled for the 'Golden Orange Melts' because they sounded nice and simple and I do love me some orange.  They are also great because you can keep the dough in the fridge for up to a week and just bake some when you feel like.  Which is what I ended up doing.  I did a test batch the day after I originally made the dough and then did not end up cooking the rest until much later in the week.  I will say though, they did turn out a little crispier on the second go.

These are very yummy.  I was sceptical as to how orangey they would taste since I was using zest and juice this time, rather than orange extract like I usually do.  Turns out, they are VERY orangey and they smell amazing!  I ended up taking one each day for a break time snack and unwrapping it from the foil always sent this great burst of orange into the air.  It was great!  They taste really good and have a nice texture.  Like I said before, how crunchy they are seems to change the longer the dough is left in the fridge.  I shall definitely be making these again though.

Recipe - adapted from Home Baking Cookie and Biscuits 
Makes about 30 (the original recipe says 12 but I managed to get a lot more from one batch of dough)

This recipe requires the dough to be chilled overnight!

• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 1 egg
• 1 orange
• 300g/11oz plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until it is pale and creamy.
2. Zest and juice the orange.
3. Beat the egg gently in a separate bowl and then add it and the orange zest to the sugar butter and mix in.
4. Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture along with 2 or 3 teaspoons of the orange juice and mix together to form a reasonably firm dough.
5. Shape the dough into a sausage shape about 30cm/12inches long, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge overnight (and up to a week).
6. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°/Gas Mark 5 and line 2 or 3 baking trays with baking parchment.
7. Cut slices of dough off the roll, about 1cm/0.5inches thick and space well apart on the trays as they spread a lot whilst baking (I only got 6 on each of my trays: any more resulted in them merging together).
8. Bake for about 10 minutes until the edges are just starting to darken and the rest of the biscuit is a pale golden colour.
9. Allow to rest on the trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies

I was desiring cookies last week.  Chocolate filled cookies.  Lots of chocolate but without being an entirely chocolate cookie because I don't like those very much.  I could have made one of my other chocolate chips cookie recipes (I do have three others on here already) but where's the fun in that?  And it never hurts to have yet another recipe for such things.  They are all somewhat different so I can pick and choose based on what I'm in the mood for and how much waiting I can stand to do.

I wanted to try this recipe after seeing the photos.  Seriously, the photos from the original post are so gorgeous and the cookies look so inviting.  The oozy chocolate makes your mouth water.  Maybe they were shot straight from the oven, though after the required cooling period of course?  They are delicious right after said period, by the way.  Extra soft too.

So yes, this is a soft cookie recipe.  Very soft.  But oh so good, especially considering there was 340g/12oz of chocolate spread between 18 cookies in the form of chips and chunks.  Good quality chocolate too as I used Cadbury's Dairy Milk for my chunks.  I honestly recommend you choose your favourite chocolate for these cookies, which is why I did not specify a type in the recipe write up.  They are a fabulous cookie.  Both the fiancé and I have been enjoying them immensely.

Recipe - adapted from Averie Cooks
Makes about 18

• 170g/6oz butter
• 115g/4oz light brown sugar
• 40g/1.5oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 225g/8oz plain flour
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g/6oz chocolate chips
• 170g/6oz chocolate

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until it is smooth.
2. Add the brown sugar and caster sugar to the butter and beat until creamy and pale.
3. Mix in the egg and the vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour, salt, cornflour and bicarbonate of soda to the mix and stir together until just incorporated.
5. Cut the chocolate into bite size chunks and add it and the chocolate chips to the dough.  Fold in.
6. Scoop out 60g/2oz amounts of dough and place on a plate or two.
7. Cover the plate with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours (mine were chilling for about 4).
8. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
9. Transfer the scoops of dough to the trays, spacing them about 5cm/2inches apart.  (I got 4 on a tray but I have small trays for a small oven).
10. Bake until the edges of the cookies are just starting to turn gold.  This will range from 8-15 minutes.  (The original recipe said 8-10 minutes but mine took longer).  The centres will still be very soft and will be pale.
11. Allow to sit on the tray for 5 minutes after removing from the oven before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

So Christmas has come and gone.  It was a good one.  I got some fabulous things, including a number of new additions for my kitchen (which I now need to find space for) and some photo editing software that I have been coveting for a while.  There was also great food and lots of rushing about visiting people.  Admittedly I did end up feeling a bit homesick.  It's been three years since I was home for Christmas.  It is one of the downsides to living so far away with erratic circumstances: planning anything is nearly impossible.  But maybe I'll get to go down next year.

Anyway, since me being at university means there is only one source of income at the moment, plus the fact that we are planning and paying for a wedding next year, funds are a bit low.  There was money for buying presents for immediate family but extended family that we would be seeing on Christmas and Boxing Day, not so much.  But I love giving presents to people so I decided I would make the presents!  Or bake as the case actually is.  So December 23rd and 24th were spent baking over 200 biscuits!  I've never made so many before.  It was exhausting but worth it!  The majority were my favourite chocolate dipped orange shortbread (cut into stars), which were for the grandparents, aunts, uncles and older cousins.  The younger cousins got chewy chocolate chip cookies.  I didn't think either of those would suit the last giftee though, since he is only 3.  So I made something new just for him: banana chocolate chip cookies.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide his verdict on the cookies.  However, the fiancé got to eat the spares and he says they are very banana-ry and there's lots of chocolate chips to compliment it.  They're also slightly crunchy.  Yum yum!

Recipe - adapted from Biscuit via Baking Heaven volume 2

Makes about 24

• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 100g/3.5oz golden caster sugar
• 100g/3.5oz banana (about 1 banana)
• 200g/7oz plain flour
• 100g/3.5oz milk chocolate chips

1. Mash the banana in a large bowl with a fork.
2. Add the butter and sugar and beat together until smooth and creamy.  If it starts to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
3. Add the remaining flour and the chocolate chips to the mixture.  Beat together until a soft, sticky dough forms.
4. Form dough into a rough ball and wrap in clingfilm.  Chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
6. Shape the dough into balls about the size of a walnut, place on the trays spaced about 3cm/1.5inches apart and then flatten them with a wet fork.
7. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the biscuits are golden brown.  The centres will still be a little soft.
8. Allow to rest on the trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.