Tuesday Treats – Flapjacks with a Twist

These flapjacks are the perfect treat with a nice cup of tea 🙂
Again, another simple recipe, and it has a lovely twist.

What you need:

175g/6oz Margarine
175g/6oz Demerara Sugar
2 tbsp Golden Syrup
225g/8oz Porridge Oats
My Secret Kitchen Vanilla Pudding Spice

18 x 27cm Shallow Baking Tin

What you need to do:

Turn on your oven to Gas 3/160oc.

Line your baking tin with greaseproof paper and grease the top of it.

Melt the margarine in a saucepan and add in the sugar and the syrup.

Heat the mixture on a low heat until the margarine has melted.
Stir with a wooden spoon, now and again, dont let the mix boil.

Take the pan off the heat and add in the porridge oats.
Stir them in, making sure that they are covered completely in the syrup mixture.
Add a sprinkling of the vanilla pudding spice mix and combine well.

Place the mix into your greased tin. Spreading all over the base and making sure the mixture is pushed into the corners.

Smooth the top of the mixture, then place in the oven for 25 minutes.

When the flapjacks turn golden brown, they are ready.

Leave the flapjacks to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before cutting them into squares.

Once cut leave them in the tin until they are cold.

Enjoy

xSx

Tuesday Treats – Cherry and Chocolate Brownies

My oh my, these brownies are tasty. And easy to make.
I loved them, the Mr loved them, the Mini’s loved them and my fellow Cake Enthuasists – Mel and Lucy – enjoyed them!
Just need the Pops taste test on them now!

What you need:

175g/6oz Margarine
350g/12oz Caster Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Eggs
125g/5oz Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
50g/2oz Cocoa Powder
125g/5oz Chocolate Chips
125g/5oz Glace Cherries halved

What you need to do:

Line your baking tin with greasproof paper (I used a 9 x 12 in oblong tin)
Lay the paper and grease the top.
Turn on your oven to Gas 4/180oc.

Melt your margarine in a saucepan over a low heat.
Once melted, pour into your mixing bowl and add in the sugar and vanilla extract.

Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat together.
Add them to your mixing bowl, a little at a time. Making sure the mixture is combining well.

Sift the flour and cocoa into the bowl and then add in your baking powder. Mix well.

Add in your chocolate chips and halved cherries and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.

Place in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.

The brownies will be ready once they have risen and there will be a crust on the top, and soft in the middle.

Let the brownies cool down slightly in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then cut into squares and place on a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

xSx

Little Chefs – Cornflake Crunch

Makes 8 pieces

225g milk or plain chocolate
3 tablespoons golden syrup
50g margarine
100g cornflakes

20cm shallow round tin

Grease your tin with a little margarine on a paper towel.
Grease inside well, but don’t leave a lot of butter on tin.

Break your chocolate into pieces in a large pan.
Add in the margarine and syrup.
Heat the pan on a low heat, stirring the mixture all the time.

Once the chocolate has melted, add in the cornflakes and stir well.
Making sure that the cornflakes are coated well with chocolate.

Spoon the mixture into your tin.
Smooth the top with the back of a metal.

Put the tin in the fridge so that the mixture sets. Should roughly take 2 hours.

Once set, get a grown up to use a sharp knife and cut into pieces.

Keep in an airtight container and eat within four days

Little Chefs – Marshmallow Crispies

Makes roughly 12 pieces

100g toffee
100g butter or margarine
100g marshmallows
100g rice Crispies

We used our square tin from pampered chef to set the mixture in.

Grease your tin with some butter or margarine on a paper towel.
Place your toffee in a plastic bag and break up with a rolling pin.

Put the toffee and butter into a pan.
Add marshmallows and melt them gently over a low heat.
Making sure you stir all the time.

When everything has melted and blended together, take pan off the heat and add in the rice Crispies.
Make sure they are evenly covered.

Spoon mixture into your tray and peas down gently with the back of a metal spoon.

Set mixture aside to set.

Once set cut into pieces.

keep these in an airtight container and eat within four days

Little Chefs – Choc Chip Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

100g caster sugar
100g butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
175g milk, white or plain Chocolate chips (we used a mixture of milk and white)

Heat oven to 180oc/gas 4.

Grease 2 baking trays. Turn on your oven.
Place caster sugar and butter into a large mixing bowl. Stir well with a wooden spoon.
Keep on stirring, quite briskly. You need to get the mixture as smooth and creamy as you can.
Break the egg in a small bowl and beat.
Pour in the vanilla and mix in with the egg.
Pour your egg mix into the bowl and stir well. Sift in the flour and combine.
Once the mix is smooth, stir in the chocolate chips.
Place heaped tablespoons of the mix into the baking sheets.
Flatten each cookie slightly with the back of a fork.
Bake the cookies for 10-15 until they are golden brown.
They should be slightly soft in the middle.
Leave cookies for a few minutes, then place on a cooling rack to cool.

Enjoy 🙂

These biscuits will keep for 5 days in an airtight container

Little Chefs – Apple Crumble

The monsters had a great time making this crumble.
They chose the recipe, and we headed to the shops to get all our ingredients. They seemed to feel more important as they marched around the supermarket with their list in hand, bless their wee aprons.
We hope you enjoy this simple, tasty recipe.

Serves 6

500g eating apples
6 tablespoons of water
Ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon caster sugar

For the crumble
100g plain flour
100g whole meal flour
100g butter
75g light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180oc/gas mark 4.

Cut the apples into quarters, peel them and cut out the cores.
Place them in a pie dish.
Add the water to the apples. Sprinkle them with a large pinch of cinnamon and the caster sugar.
Mix together both flours.
Cube the butter and add into flour mix.
Mix the butter and flour together with a blunt knife, stir and cut into flour again, until the butter is fully coated with flour.
Wash your hands and dry them well.
Rub the butter into the flour. Lift the mixture as your rubbing and let it fall into bowl.
When the mixture is of breadcrumb consistency, mix in the soft brown sugar.
Sprinkle the topping over the apple mix and spread out evenly.
Place pie dish on a baking tray in the oven.
Bake for 45 minutes until the top has went a golden brown colour.
Once cooked let the crumble cool for 5 mins and then serve with ice cream or custard.

X

Little Chefs

I have decided to start a weekly recipe post called Little Chefs.
I will be posting up every Friday recipes and outcomes of what my little chefs and I have been upto.

I love cooking with the little ones and they love to get new cookbooks (think Lolly is starting to get an obsession with them like me and she’s only 2 1/2!).
They chose the recipe, I write the shopping list and we all go to the shops to get the items in.

I hope you enjoy these weekly posts as much as we will be making the recipes.
I will do a linky further up the road, when I figure out if and how I can do it on here.

Our first official Little Chef recipe post will be live later on today 🙂

X

Me and Mr Hollywood

Aaah Mr Hollywood. He has it all. The baking skills, those eyes!
And what do I have?? His book.

The two of us are going to have several dates over the next wee while.
Starting with his basic white bread.

I have made bread before, with, ahem, the help of a bread maker. So it was time to make it without the machine and with my fair hands.
It was a lot simpler than I imagined and didn’t take near enough as long as what a bread maker takes!

All I had to do was get the ingredients together (strong flour, yeast, butter, salt and water), follow the instructions. And Mary’s your auntie, see what I done there 😉

dough all mixed and ready to cook

The recipe states that you have to leave the dough in a bowl, tea towel over top, for an hour or so.
I remember doing this with my dad when making pizza dough.
I put it in my airing cupboard at the top of the stairs to let the warmth help the yeast rise.

I waited just over an hour before removing it as bringing it back to my kitchen.
I then gave it a quick kneading to knock the air out and popped it into my loaf tin.
And here’s the smart part. While my bread maker takes at least 4 1/2 hours. My Hollywood bread only took 30 mins to cook.
I’d say, all in all 2 hours to make.

So pass me the lurpak while the breads still warm. Amazing!

Thanks Mr H. See you again soon.

X

White Chocolate Chip Cookies

We do love a good days baking.
And today we decided to make some cookies.
I raided the cupboard to see what I had and found a tub of white chocolate chips. Perfect.

We mixed together our ingredients (will put recipe at bottom, it’s so easy) and the monsters picked the star cutter.

Once all our stars had been cut, I popped them into my Pampered Chef round stone and placed in the oven.
They don’t take long to cook, 15-20 minutes.

Now this is the part I hate. Leaving then to cool.
It’s the cookie aroma. Makes me want to dig right in and come on, who doesn’t like warm cookies straight from the oven.

If you want to give them a bash, here’s the recipe.

50g caster sugar
100g butter
150g self raising flour
1 pack White Choc chips (or any other filling you fancy)

Preheat oven to gas mark 3/170c.
Line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add flour in gradually until the mixtures forms into a dough.

Add the chocolate chips and mix well into the dough. Dust a work surface with a little flour and roll out the dough.
Using a cutter, cut out your cookies and place on the lined tray, making sure there is room for them to spread while cooking.

Cook for 15-20 mind, until golden. Leave to cook on the tray for 5 mins then move onto a cooling rack.

Enjoy x

Traybake Tuesday

I’m sure most of you know I love to bake. In fact I love to just cook.

I’m thinking of starting up a regular on feature on here and as you’ve probably guessed, it’s to do with baking.

What I am looking for now is your recipes and pictures if you have any of your favourite bake and I will feature it in the blog where possible.
If you would like to be involved, send a little email to sarahline883@btinternet.com and I will take it from there.

X

*scurries away to find some recipes or next week.