Cherry Bakewell Biscuits

With a hectic and stressful week in work I wanted to do some stress relieving baking and a recipe I found on a forum I lurk on, ticked all the right boxes. The recipe is based on Smitten Kitchen's slice & bake cookie palette. I've never made a biscuit like this before, but I think I now may be hooked. It is such an easy technique and it was nice coming home from work with some fresh dough in the fridge knowing I was less than 15 min away from freshly baked biscuits. These are also the first biscuits (I think) that I've made in my KitchenAid. I did a half batch as quite frankly my hips are turning more Nigellaesque by the day.

While looking through my baking cupboard for biscuit fillings I found some glace cherries that really needed to be used. Along with my almond extract the idea hit me. Biscuits inspired by my favourite cake, a Bakewell tart and so it was born - Cherry Bakewell Biscuits.

They are incredibly moreish and Hubby & I are trying not to eat them all in one sitting, and yes they do taste like the hallowed Bakewell. The primary reason for making them is for a treat in our lunchboxes as if I know I've got a little homemade treat in my box I'm less inclined to raid the staffroom biscuit tin. I've already started to think about other variations of this biscuit - dark chocolate & sour cherry, lemon & poppyseed, apricot & almond...

Cherry Bakewell Biscuits
Based on Smitten Kitchen's slice & bake cookie palette
Makes 25

115g unsalted butter, room temperature
40g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp almond extract
140 plain flour
100g glace cherries, chopped

1) Beat together butter and sugar until you have a buttercream, then beat in yolk and extract.

2) Add cherries and flour then beat again until ingredients are well combined. Flatted dough into a disk, cover in clingfilm and chill for 30 min.

3) Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out into a long log with a diameter of around 3cm. Wrap back up in the cling film and chill for a further 2 hours (minimum). If the dough isn't chilled sufficiently it will begin to misshape when it is sliced ready for baking.

4) Preheat oven to 180oc. Cut the dough log into rounds about 1cm thick and place on a lined baking tray. Bake for 12-14 min until they are cooked. Once cooked transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Muesli Cookies

The long absence from my blog primarily has been due to major DIY project happening at the cottage. The cottage has been covered in plaster dust and wood shavings, hardly conducive towards cooking. When we bought the cottage 4 years ago the downstairs was carpeted with a lovely cream carpet. Looked great for about...10 minutes. Who ever thought a cream carpet was a good idea in a cottage with a fire was wrong. I got so fed up with cleaning it I suggested a couple of weeks ago that we pull it up and put down flooring instead. In an ideal world we have loved solid wood flooring, but it costs more than we could afford so instead we've put down a antique look laminate flooring (god bless IKEA).

While pulling up the carpet we came across a surprise. We were under the impression that under the carpet there was modern concrete, instead we found the original 18th Century tiled floor. Some of the tiles were damaged and we weren't in the position to restore the tiles so instead have protected them and hidden them under the new flooring. Maybe in the future a future tenant of the cottage we have the money and time to restore the tiles.

Spring is slowly making an appearance in the garden. The garlic is sprouting nicely and the birds and bees have been busying around. I've also discovered a new currency...eggs. I've done a few jobs/favours for friends recently and have been paid in eggs from their hens. I'll never complain about being paid in food! I now have a wonderful collection of hens eggs in lots of different hues. I also have some strawberry plants winging their way to me.



The distinct lack of cooking hit me at 0645 this morning. I just couldn't sleep and had to bake. These cookies were the result; my attempt at trying to make cookies slightly healthy. They remind me of the Anzac biscuits from my school days, but not as hard. The muscovado sugar caramelised leaving the cookies nice and chewy. For this recipe I use muesli base which I buy in a vegan wholefood store, but I have also seen it in places like Holland & Barratt and Sainsburys.

Muesli Cookies
Makes 12

125g unsalted butter, melted
100g granulated sugar
75g muscovado sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
100g muesli base
100g sultanas

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Beat together the butter and two sugars then stir in egg and vanilla extract.

2) Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl then fold in muesli base and sultanas. Combine well.

3) Line a baking sheet with parchment and place spoonfuls of the mixture onto the parchment. Leave a big gap between each blob as this mixture has a tendency to spread. I had to bake the cookies in two batches. Bake for 8-10 until golden. Allow to cool for 5 min before transferring to a wire rack.

Chocolate Caramel Nuggets

I've meaning to try these chocolate caramel nuggets for a while, but with seasonal baking, then the fact I gave biscuits up for lent I never got around to them until today. I originally came across the recipe on Cherrapeno's blog, then I realised I have a the same Cookie & Biscuit Bible cookbook.

Like Nic, I found this particular cookbook in a book section of a gardening centre. It was the best £5 I've ever spent. It's such a great cookbook, just a shame it's now out of print. I wish I had picked up other copies at the time to give to friends.

I don't have a food processor big enough to make these biscuits so did the first part of the recipe in my mini food processor then finished it off by hand. The eggs I was using were small so ended up using an additional small egg yolk and a splash of milk to get the dough to combine.

The result was a lovely, not too rich, biscuit with the texture and slight taste of shortbread. It was very much like an inside out Millionaire's Shortbread. Perfect with a cuppa. One problem, they are very moreish. One just isn't enough!

Stained Glass Biscuits

Christmas is nearly upon us and my Christmas baking is still continuing at full speed. Yesterday was the last day of term so I'm now on 2 week holiday, yay! Today I made one of my final batches of decoration biscuits, and some stained glass biscuits for our tree. The way they glisten on the tree is beautiful and I will certainly be making them again in the future. I've submitted them to Susan's Christmas Cookie Foodblog Event at Food Blogga

Stained glass biscuits
Makes about 20

175g plain flour
75g unsalted butter
3 tbsp vanilla caster sugar
1 egg white
2 tbsp orange juice
bag of boiled sweets (one per biscuit)

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Rub butter into flour until you have a fine breadcrumb texture. Stir in sugar, egg. Then mix in orange juice in gradually, until you have a smooth dough.

2) Roll out dough until about 2mm-5mm thick. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out a round, then use a different shape to cut out the middle. Make a small hole at the top using a skewer, to allow you to thread ribbon/thread through later on. Place on baking tray lined with baking parchment.

3) Place a boiled sweet in the middle of each biscuit. bake for 15-20 min. Allow to cool on baking sheet.

Thumbprint cookies

Today is Children in Need and in school we had a Strictly Come Dancing day. All of us staff were dolled up with ball gowns and tiaras and I certainly got some odd looks while I was defrosting my car this morning! To raise money we had a cake stall. I made some cinder toffee, boiled fruit cake and some thumbprint cookies. I've never made thumbprint cookies before, but was inspired by some I saw on tastespotting a couple of weeks ago. The cookies tasted nice, but I made the huge mistake of using cheap cheap jam and it just wouldn't do anything but sit there in a horrible looking blob. Next time I'll use decent jam.

Thumbprint cookies
Makes about 28

140g plain flour
50g ground almonds
110g butter
50g granulated sugar
Jam

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Mix flour and almonds then add to the butter cream. Mix well until combined. Form into dough ball

2) Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Line 2 baking trays.

3) Take about a teaspoon worth of dough and shape into a ball. Place on baking sheet and press firmly in the middle with your thumb. Continue with the rest of the dough. Place 2 inches apart.

4) Bake for 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and put about 1/4 tsp of jam in the cookie thumbprint. Return to the oven for 7 minutes or until beginning to lightly brown on the edges. Cool on baking rack.

Forgotten Cookies

For the weekend Hubbie & I, plus my best mate and her husband went away camping in the Peak District. We recieved lots of camping gear for our wedding and this was the first opportunity we've had to try it out. Somebody was sure looking down on us as we hardly saw any rain for the whole weekend. On the Saturday night we went to the Manifold Inn which was opposite the campsite. The food was really good pub grub.

For the trip I made some Forgotten Cookies. Although they look a bit odd, they tasted delicious and went down very very well! They are called forgotten cookies, because you literally put them in the oven and forget out them.

Forgotten Cookies
Makes about 20

2 egg whites
120g golden caster sugar
120g pecans, roughly chopped
150g dark chocolate drops
1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Gradually whisk in the sugar until it looks like glossy shaving foam. Carefully fold in the nuts, chocolate, then vanilla extract.

2) Use a teaspoon to blob the mixture onto the baking sheet. Don't make them too big, or they won't cook completely in the inside.

3) Place the baking sheets in the oven. Then turn off the oven. Leave for atleast 3 hours (ideally over night) don't open the oven until atleast 3 hours are up, or you'll loose heat.

Our brand new shiny cooker arrived this morning and I'm looking forward to cooking with a decent cooker now!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now it's Easter Hols and I have time off work it gives me the opportunity to get back to baking (or experimenting as I'm sure H2B would like to call it!). Todays baking disaster was cookies. I've made them loads of times before, but this time I didn't leave enough gap between each blob of cookie dough and I ended up with one giant cookie. Thankfully the old workmates I had made them for didn't mind.

Last night was such a cold night, and I had some bread & cream to use up I decided to make bread & butter pudding. Not something I should be eating with my next wedding dress fitting on Tuesday but you can't beat bread & butter pudding piping hot from the oven with a huge dollop of G&B vanilla icecream....heaven.

Bread & Butter pudding (serves 6)
350g white bread (about 1/2 a loaf)
150g butter
ground nutmeg
about 2 handfuls of sultantas/currents/rasins
3 tbsp sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
100g caster sugar (I use the vanilla caster sugar we made at xmas)
450ml single cream

1) Preheat oven to 180oc, butter bread, cut off crusts and place in deef 20x30cm baking dish. Sprinkle with raisins and nutmeg

2) Lightly whisk eggs, sugar and cream. Pour over bread. Dot with a few extra dollops of butter.

3) Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 40-50min until risen and golden.

Appologies for the odd formating of this entry, I'm still trying to get used to Blogger!