Cinnamon and Caramel Cookies

I have wanted to make the biscuits in this post for quite a while, but I kept forgetting to buy the toffees or I'd find something else to make and forget all about them! However, this week I finally got round to making them, and I am very glad I did! The biscuit is so lightly spiced and crumbly it is truly divine, and the toffee brings just the right amount of sweetness because it doesn't overpower the other flavours. They go perfectly with my favoured tea of the moment, Chai - I can't stop drinking the stuff! It will definitely be featuring on the Delicious Decadence drinks menu when we finally open - fingers crossed, in fact everything crossed, it will be soon now because we only have a couple of things left to tie up! 

Anyway, enjoy the post!

The Ingredients

8oz Butter, 5oz caster sugar, an egg, 1tsp vanilla extract, 10oz plain flour, pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp ground mixed spice, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and toffees.

Firstly, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.

Next, separate the egg, and add just the egg yolk (you don't need the white) and the vanilla extract.

Then add the flour, ground mixed spice, ground cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

Stir everything together until you have a smooth and fairly pliable dough, and then drop spoonfuls of it onto a lined baking tray. Use your fingers to round the drops and flatten them down a bit. Make sure the amounts are well spaced out because they spread when they bake. 

For the toffee part, you need individually wrapped round toffee sweets - one for each cookie.

After 6 minutes in the oven (190), remove the cookies, and place a toffee in the middle of each one.

Put the cookies back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes and then remove, at which point the cookies will be a beautiful golden brown and the toffee in the middle will have started to melt slightly. 

And there you have it. The cookies have a beautiful flavour and I think you could just make them as a plain biscuit without the toffee if you fancied it! The toffee remains chewy in the centre and compliments the biscuit well. Well worth a try I think!

Kate

xxx

Chocolate Post #4

I am a keen member of the WI, as I have said in previous posts, however, I was incredibly bored at last night's meeting. In the programme for the year we were told we would be getting a demonstration on cake decorating, which I was very much looking forward to, but when we arrived at the village hall we found out that our speaker had cancelled on us at the last minute - something our WI seems to have a serious problem with. 

'Oh no', I hear you all cry, 'what did you do?' We got taught how to make chocolate brownies........ 

I was not particularly impressed, especially when the lady (another member of my WI) started talking about this 'new idea' of having a brownie for dessert...and people wonder why younger women don't want to join! On trying the brownie at the end I was even more unimpressed.

Having gone through this last night, I thought I would knock together a related post, and so here is a brownie recipe I found only recently, but am a serious fan of it! Mainly because it isn't ruined by the addition of walnuts! I can't stand walnuts but I do think brownies need something else in them to lighten the denseness of the chocolate - in this recipe that something is cranberries, which I do rather like. When I found it in a new recipe book I've just acquired I couldn't resist giving it a go and it was well worth it! Just to clarify, I am not now teaching you how to make brownies!

The Ingredients

 Butter, chocolate, caster sugar, cocoa, eggs, plain flour, baking powder, and cranberries.

First, put the chocolate and the butter in a medium sized bowl and melt in the microwave.

In a seperate bowl, beat together the eggs and the caster sugar until pale and smooth.

Then add the melted chocolate and butter and mix thoroughly. 

Next, sift in the plain flour, cocoa, and baking powder, and combine.

Finally, carefully fold in the cranberries.

Spoon into a rectangular tin, once again I am using my much favoured silicone one, and bake.

Remove from the oven when the top has become crisp and pale, and is beginning to crack.

When it has cooled slightly, cut it into squares (or as close to squares as you can get) and leave to cool on a wire rack.

And there you have a beautiful chocolate brownie with a slight twist because of the cranberries. The texture is the perfect combination of crisp on the outside and gooey in the middle, while the cranberries take the edge off the chocolate just the right amount.

If you're feeling really adventurous, why not try this 'new idea', and serve it warm with ice cream and chocolate sauce for a very nice dessert.

Oh the hilarity! Enjoy!

Kate

xxx

Biscuits that taste surprisingly like pancakes!

The title of this post pretty much sums it up! Here are biscuits that taste like pancakes! They are maple and pecan cookies with a maple glaze, and they are beautiful, even if they don't look like much! They taste great and thats what matters most with food in my opinion. They don't need any more of an introduction!

The Ingredients

Butter, caster sugar, egg, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, plain flour, pecan nuts, and maple syrup.

Into a bowl put the flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda.

Add the butter and with your hands, rub it in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

To this, add the caster sugar and the pecans.

Next, beat the egg, and add that to the mixture. 

Stir in the maple syrup and mix well.

Spoon the mixture onto a lined baking tray. Make sure the amounts are evenly spaced because they will spread when they cook.

Once cooked the biscuits should have spread out and turned a beautiful golden brown. Immediately brush the biscuits with more maple syrup, and then leave to cool before moving to a cooling rack.

And this is the end result. 

The biscuits are fairly soft and beautifully sweet and nutty. They might not look much but they taste gorgeous!
Perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon on a cold day!

Kate
xxx

Happy Halloween!

So the post itself might be a little late, but I did in fact spend the 31st October baking Halloween goodies! Halloween has never been 'celebrated' in the Appleby household, except for one year (many years ago) when we just happened to be in Salem for the night - spooky! However, I still use it as an excuse to bake, but lets face it I use anything as an excuse to bake! This post is for spiced cupcakes with spiced cream cheese frosting - far too good to give to anyone who is trick or treating! The cupcakes are rich and dark because they contain a large amount of treacle while the frosting is cool and creamy with a slight kick from the spices - the two compliment each other perfectly and make a very satisfying treat on a cold Autumnal day! 

The Ingredients

 Butter, dark brown sugar, treacle, eggs, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, and ground mixed spice.

 In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy, and to it add the treacle.

 Next, lightly beat the eggs and combine with the butter mixture.

 Gently fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and mixed spice, using a metal spoon.

 Spoon the mixture into paper cases and bake until well risen and beginning to crack on the top.

 Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tin, and then transfer to a wire rack. When they are completely cool, make the frosting.

 For the frosting: butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon.

 In a bowl combine the butter, cream cheese, and spices.

 Then add the icing sugar and beat thoroughly.

 You will end up with quite a runny mixture, so I put it in the fridge for about an hour/hour and a half before I used it.

 Once it has been in the fridge, and therefore thickened up and set slightly more, spread the frosting over the cupcakes, and then decorate. I used Halloween themed cake-toppers, but you could use whatever you fancy.

And there you have Halloween themed spiced ginger cupcakes with spiced cream cheese frosting - perfect on a cold October night! 

The perfect treat involving very little trickery!

Kate

xxx

p.s. I had a lot of the frosting left over so I made a carrot cake to use it up - also a very good combination!