Cookie Monsters!

I’m talking about me and my boyfriend… we can munch a whole tray of cookies with no problem and when you start using this recipe I bet we won’t be the only ones!

I love this recipe I have used it countless times and it never fails except one time where I added a little bit too much salt… but they were okay on the second day when everything had set properly. So please note they are very sensitive to salt don’t add more than it says, don’t make my mistake!

It is the BBC Vintage Cookie recipe. You start off blending the butter and sugar I like to put in the muscovado sugar first and whisk it with a fork to break up all the lumps then whisk in the granulated sugar so that it blends smoothly.

Then I microwave the butter in a separate bowl and add it to the sugar mix and blend away, usually for three minutes but at least two.

I add the vanilla and egg and mix together.

Same with the bicarbonate of soda and flour.

Then comes the fun bit choosing the extras! We threw out the recommended suggestion a long time ago we’ve had mixed fruit, dark chocolate and brazil nut ones, pecan and milk chocolate ones, milk, dark and white chocolate ones! The options are endless but we do always have some chocolate in there. I think dark chocolate is our favourite and we just buy a block rather than the chips and cut it up, then you get some massive pieces and little flakes in the mix it’s delicious.

This time we have gone for pistachio and dark chocolate. Ummm super tasty!

We make them a little larger than the recommendation and so only need two trays making twelve cookies, start off with small dobs then go back and add more to each.

They will spread out while in the oven but if you want them to spread less just chill the dough either before you have placed them on the tray or after, or both! Go crazy!

Done, soooo tasty and sooo easy! We can get a hot plate of cookies ready in 30 minutes now. Oh and trust the timings they will come out squidgy but firm up as they cool. If you like them really squidgy in the middle use the times on the recipe even though the cookies are bigger, if not add on two minutes. If you can try and leave them for five minutes on the trays, they will still be warm when you eat them but come off the tray better and stay together while you munch.

Let me know the combos you try!

Thanks for Reading xx

Brownie Cupcakes!

I really fancied a chocolate fix and thought the best way to deal with that would be to make some brownies but I had also come across some sweet cupcake cases from Dr Oetker in the supermarket so I came up with the plan for cupcake brownies! I know, I am a total genius you don’t need to say it…

I used a Hummingbird recipe for the brownies from their book which is pretty much the only bakery book I have bought because I am a massive BBC Good Food fan as you may have been able to tell? I also added in some orange zest and chocolate chips which pretty much melted instantly so they were a bit pointless but the white chocolate added a nice swirl on some. The recipe was really easy to follow and quick to do, it made 24 cupcakes and I cooked them for 20 minutes.

For the frosting I kept with the orange theme and added orange zest and juice to plain vanilla butter icing and did a piped splodge on top of each cupcake. I then garnished them with a piece of dried orange from my bag of mixed dried fruit.

The brownies only came out of their cases cleanly once they had thoroughly cooled so I would suggest making them the day before they need serving and with it making 24 its fine if a couple going missing, the chef should always get to eat a bake good warm out the oven!

Loved these brownies, the recipe book and getting to do some quick and easy piping so this is something I will definitely repeat in the future.

Let me know if you give it a go!

Thanks for Reading xx

All my ingredients laid out! Getting started!!

Dr Oetker cupcake cases

Melting butter and chocolate in a Bain marie

Adding my orange zest to get chocolate and orange brownies

What the mixture looks like after adding sugar

Action flour shot!

You can see how smooth its gotten this is the last egg!

Chocolate chips!!!!

Finished batter

It easily made 24 cupcakes

Where the white chocolate has melted and swirled 

Adding a little zest into the butter icing

Halfway through mixing in my icing sugar

Adding orange juice to get the icing light

Just out the oven

Piping ready!

Chef share with some whipped cream because they were too hot for icing

All Done!

Giant Chocolate Gruffalo

We went for a boring trip to Sainsburys last weekend to get stuff for packed lunches (may have also stopped off at the Easter egg aisle but they are only around once a year you need to start early!) but we discovered a giant chocolate Gruffalo and got to taste some of the chocolate he was made of! 

Created by Thorntons he will be touring various Sainsburys in the next couple weeks. He was very impressive and had a little speech bubble asking for people to be careful around him, also made of chocolate! He was accompanied by someone from Sainsburys and Thorntons who told us all about him and gently let us down about the fact that he wasn’t going to be coming back so we could eat him. Check out the photos!

Thanks for Reading xx