Naughty blogger

I'm such a bad blogger!

Sorry for my lack of posts and recipes this month- it's been pretty busy, but fear not I've got lots planned so when I'm not as busy ill have some new recipes for you to try :)

Happy Baking- Chocolate Nutella Cookies

These are my new favourite cookies, but be-warned these cookies are a chocolate overload but SO good!

They've got a slightly crisp outside, with a soft pillowy inside, and the centre is lovely and gooey from the Nutella.

Cookies = Good
Nutella = Good
Nutella Cookie = AMAZING!

I've been looking at a lot of different cookie recipes online recently, and I saw quite a few of them included cornflour, so I decided to include it in this recipe, and it really does help give a lovely texture to the cookies!

Makes approximately 9 Large Cookies

Ingredients-
100g Unsalted Butter- Softened
100g Caster Sugar
65g Soft Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
100g Plain Flour
40g Cocoa Powder
2 Teaspoons Cornflour
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Nutella


Method-
1) Line a baking tray with baking parchment and put to one side.
2) But the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy.
3) Add the egg and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and thoroughly mix together.
4) Add the flour, cocoa powder, cornflour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix together carefully- The mixture will become quite stiff so be careful when you mix it so it doesn't go everywhere!
5) Put the mixture in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes.
6) Line another tray with foil and place 9 or 10 teaspoons of Nutella onto it and then transfer to the freezer for about 30 minutes to harden.
7) While the cookie dough and Nutella are chilling preheat your oven to 180C.
8) Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and the Nutella from the freezer and working quite quickly take a heaped tablespoon of the cookie dough, flatten either on the tray or in your hand, place the hardened teaspoon of Nutella into the centre and press the cookie dough around the Nutella so that it is completely covered- If you're doing this in your hands roll the dough around in your palms afterwards so it's a nice round ball. Then place this on the baking tray, spacing them out well as they will spread during baking.- Repeat this until you have used all of your cookie dough and Nutella balls.
9) Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to turn a darker brown.
10) Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for about 30 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.
11) Enjoy with a cup of tea or a cool glass of milk...Perfect!

Nutella ready for chilling in the freezer

Cookie dough ready to shape around the Nutella

All ready for the oven!

Mmmm

Off we go

I'm off to V Festival today with friend from uni, for a weekend of music and camping! :) 

I'm currently sat in my bed, thinking about how much I'll miss it and that I should probably get up!...

See you when I get back :)

A little trip to Brussels

Sorry about the lack of blog posts- On Thursday Sam and I went to Brussels for a long weekend :)

We booked the trip through a travel agents, and decided to get the Euro Star because I've never been on it, and I don't really like flying. It was SO much easier! We just got the train to St Pancras station, picked up our tickets and hopped on the train. Security was much quicker than at an airport and we only had to be there half an hour before which left plenty of time to fill up on sushi before hand!

We booked a late train in case we couldn't get the day off work so we didn't get to Brussels until about 8 so we checked in to the hotel and went to find somewhere to get some dinner. Our hotel was right next to Luxembourg Square which on Thursday evenings is a place to meet for a drink outside and the square was really busy when we got there, with a really nice atmosphere :) The European Parliament is also right behind the square!

Luxembourg Square

Our first full day was Friday, which was spent wondering around the town and exploring some of Brussels, we managed to get where we wanted to without using a map (Pretty impressed with that to be honest). There wasn't anything that we really wanted to see so we just strolled around, bought some chocolate (Compulsory!) and played lots of uno (Our holiday game- The pack is pretty well travelled!)

On Saturday we took a walk into the Centre of Brussels which is filled with beautiful buildings, cobbled streets, restaurants, chocolate shops and amazing smelling waffle stands. We spent most of the day here, just wondering around and exploring. It's a really beautiful part of the city and definitely worth a visit! To get there from our hotel we walked through a really nice park which felt really peaceful compared to the busy centre. Saturday was also the day of the waffle! I've only ever has rubbish supermarket waffles before and after trying a proper one I did fall in love a little bit, in fact as soon as we got home yesterday I rejected unpacking for waffle maker research!...I definitely need one in my life! 

AMAZING waffle!

On Sunday we strolled over to Leopold Park near our hotel and sat playing uno in the sun for a few hours before going to check out the market and restaurants near by for a late lunch. When it came it walking back to the hotel I managed to get us completely lost with my "Short cut" even after looking at a map I decided I probably knew better...Note to self- I don't know better...Always trust a map! Sam on the other hand must have a world map etched into his head as where ever we go he's able to direct us without looking at a map or directions, it's pretty weird, I'm sure he's got some special powers he's not sharing with me!

Monday morning came around far to quickly, and it was time to make our way back to the station, onto the euro star and home again!...Now it's time to plan our next trip :)

Happy Baking- Strawberry and Chocolate Oaty Tray Bake

Some left over strawberries, and a craving for flapjack bought about these little slices :)

They're a really nice crumbley slice that are so easy to make and take hardly any time to bake...You can have these on the table in half an hour.

These are also really lovely served warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Makes 8 slices

Ingredients-
200g Porridge Oats
100g Unsalted Butter
75g Algave Syrup
50 Plain Flour
50g Ground Almonds
150g Strawberries
30g Chocolate Chips

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 200C and line an 8inch x 8inch baking tin with baking parchment.
2) Add the oats, butter, algave syrup, flour and ground almonds to a bowl and using your hands "rub" all of the ingredients together, until all of the butter is incorporated.
3) Mash up the strawberries in a separate bowl- Making sure there are no large chunks of of strawberry.
4) Put 3/4 of the oat mixture into the baking tin, spread it out evenly and push it down into the tin.
5) Add the mashed strawberries to the tin and spread them evenly over the top of the oats.
6) Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over the top.
7) Sprinkle over the chocolate chips.
8) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and loosely cover with foil, and put it bake in the oven for another 5 minutes.- They should be starting to go golden on top, and the chocolate chips melting slightly.
9) Remove from the oven and let them cool in the tin.

Happy Baking- Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

You can never have too many cookie recipes!

This recipe is actually the same one that I used for the Strawberry Cookies, only this time they're filled with chocolatey goodness!

 I like to mix and match these cookies- Making one batch of the cookie dough and to one half of it adding the strawberries, and to the other chocolate chips!...Yum!

Makes 10 Cookies

Ingredients-
100g Unsalted Butter- Softened
60g Soft Brown Sugar
60g Caster Sugar
1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
180g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
Generous Pinch of Salt
150g Chocolate Chips

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
2) Cream your butter and both sugars together in a bowl until they are lighter in colour and look "fluffy"- This can take a few minutes
3) Add the vanilla extract and the egg to the bowl and mix them well into the creamed mixture.
4) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the salt over the creamed mixture and carefully mix them together.
5) Add the chocolate chips to the dough and mix through.
6) Take a tablespoon of the cookie dough and using your hand or two spoons shape the dough into a ball, place this on the lined baking tray and flatten down slightly- Repeat this with all of your dough,
7) Bake your cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to turn golden.
8) Remove from the oven, and let them cool on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
9) Try really hard to let them cool completely, fail, and eat a couple...I won't tell if you wont!

Picnic Recipes- Strawberry Cookies

Strawberries help to sum the the summer for me, so what better way to enjoy the sun than with a strawberry cookie or two...Or three...Or four...

These cookies are really versatile, and although I've put freeze dried raspberries in these, you can easily add chocolate chips :)

These cookies are lovely and soft and would be perfect with a glass of pimms on a sunny afternoon! It helps that they're really easy to make too!

  

Makes 10 Cookies

Ingredients-
100g Unsalted Butter- Softened
60g Soft Brown Sugar
60g Caster Sugar
1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
180g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
Generous Pinch of Salt
7g Freeze-dried Strawberries (I bought mine in Waitrose- They come in a little tube, conveniently 7g!)

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
2) Cream your butter and both sugars together in a bowl until they are lighter in colour and look "fluffy"
3) Add the vanilla extract and egg to the bowl and mix them well into the creamed mixture.
4) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the salt over the creamed mixture and carefully mix together.
5) Add the freeze dried strawberries and mix through.
6) Take a tablespoon of the mixture and either using your hand or two spoons shape the dough into a ball, place this on the lined baking tray and flatten down slightly- Repeat this with all of your dough
7) Bake your cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to turn golden.
8) Remove from the oven, and let them cool on the tray for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.
9) Tuck in!

Something Savoury- White Bread

I LOVE home made bread, it's something that for me feels so homely, the smell especially is one thing you definitely don't get from Tesco! I think it's one of the things that is SO much better home made than shop bought, you can really taste the difference! The steps below might look a bit daunting at first glance, but when you've mastered the kneading and shaping of the dough it really is so simple, and so rewarding.

Despite my love for a home made loaf I don't bake it as often as I would like because it rarely has time to cool properly before half the loaf is demolished with a good helping of butter...Perfect but it doesn't leave much for lunch the next day! 

Makes 1 Loaf

Ingredients-
500g Strong White Bread Flour
20g Butter- Softened
10g Salt
10g Sugar
7g (1 sachet) Dried, Fast Action Yeast
340ml Tepid Water

Method-
1) Put the flour, butter, salt, sugar, and yeast into a large mixing bowl (Putting the yeast and salt on opposite sides, as salt can kill the yeast)- Rub in the flour and then mix the rest of the ingredients through.
2) Make a slight dip in the centre on the flour and pour in about 300ml of the water and mix into the flour using your fingers.
3) At this point you might need to add the rest of the water. What you need is for all of the flour to be incorporated, the sides of the bowl to be clean of flour etc and for the dough to feel soft and squidgy to the touch, but not sticky or wet.
4) Lightly flour your worktop, turn the dough out onto it and knead the dough for 10 minutes.- To knead the dough use the ball of your hand to push down onto the dough and then push it away from you (This might be easier if you hold the dough with your other hand). Then roll the stretched dough back in, turn it it 45 degrees and repeat, you need to do this for 10 minutes to stretch the gluten in the dough.
5) Lightly oil a bowl, put in your dough, cover with cling film and leave it to prove (double in size-Ideally somewhere that is slightly warm). This usually takes between 1 and 2 hours.
6) When your dough has doubled in size you need to turn it out onto a floured surface and "Knock it back" to do this you need to knead it in the same way as above to, until all the air has been knocked out.- Usually only a minute)
7) Next you need to shape your dough, this can be done in a variety of ways and there are loads of videos on the internet that will help you, but probably the simplest way is to shape it into a round loaf. To do this lightly flatten the dough with the ball of your hands, then roll the dough up. Turn it 45 degrees and repeat. Then using your whole hand, keep contact with the slide of the dough, turning it with your hand. This will smooth the dough and you should start to get a round ball of dough!
8) Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and place your dough on this, then cover it with lightly oiled cling film and let it prove again- This shouldn't take as long this time- Usually 30-45 minutes.
9) While your dough is having its second prove, preheat your oven to 220C.
10) When your dough has doubled in size again, dust with flour and slash the top if you want to using a serated knife.
11) Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Or until the top is a golden brown and if you tap the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow. Then put it on a wire rack to cool completely (If you can leave it alone for that long- If not I suggest a good helping of butter and a cup of tea!)

Adding the ingredients

Mixing the dough

Mixing the dough

Mixing the dough

Before the first prove

After the first prove

Shaping the dough

Shaping the dough

Shaping the dough

Shaping the dough

Shaping the dough

After the second prove

If you need any advise with the kneading, shaping or any other aspect of this recipe please let me know and I'll try my best to help you out :) ...Happy Baking!