Thumbprint cookies

We had no desserts or treats in the house, and I had an hour before my mum was due to pick us up. I was going for a run whilst she wheeled the baby around the park, so yes, I baked these in my running gear. If I didn’t eat cookies maybe I wouldn’t need to go running I know, I know…

I had a peek at what baking ingredients I had laying about and decided I could manage a batch of cookies. I’m more of a cake gal, and haven’t made cookies for years, so I headed to Google for a recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/butter-and-jam-thumbprints-recipe2.html

I was a good girl and followed the recipe, I even left the food mixer in the cupboard this time!

I rolled out 24 batter balls, all lovely and sugary them jammed a thumbprint in. For a bit of variety I used lemon curd, raspberry jam, cherry jam for hubby and choc hazelnut spread for me.

I put them in the oven and they needed about the same baking time as the time it takes to feed the baby, so off we went to do that.

My baking trays are different sizes. My gas oven is old.

The top shelf ones were baked perfectly but ended up square because they were too close together. The lower shelf ones were round. They were also burnt. Had I only switched the trays around at least half the batch might have been perfect!  But never mind. They tasted pretty good. Hubby was a bit fussy about the, erm, ‘browned’ ones but I’m a sugar bin so carried on eating them regardless.

                      It’s hip to be square 

Who doesn’t want a round, brown bottom?

You could basically use whatever filling you want; jams, nut butters, a square of chocolate, a hershey’s kiss, add sprinkles….. Just don’t over bake and everyone’s a winner!

Chicken and bacon pie

I only made a bloody pie!

Okay, I used store bought pastry, but I floured the countertop and rolled it out, so I’m taking it. Lazy girl tip for next time: roll a few dried herbs such as thyme into the pastry and let someone try telling you you didn’t make it yourself!

I used this recipe as a guide:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9433/chicken-pie

I pre-cooked two chicken breasts, used carrots and peas instead of leeks and mushrooms because I’m a big baby and am fussy about my vegetables. I used shortcrust pastry because I much prefer it. Ooh, and I used half milk, half cream. Partly to use up some cream I had left over and partly because I’m a glut. 😊

Using one of my watercolour brushes to top with milk. Adaptability at its best! 

Look how fancy pants I am with my decorations! The old fork trick round the outside to seal, and a few leaves to make it look as though I know what I’m doing.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Mine needed a longer cooking time thanks to the great and wizened age of my oven.

A nice hearty pie served on granny plates, comfort food at its best! I made this ready for dinner on a Friday but we didn’t end up having it until the Monday. It sat all made up in the fridge wrapped in cling film and I was a bit worried that it would affect the outcome but it came out of the oven just right!

Custard cream cheesecake

It was hubby’s birthday the weekend just gone, and instead of a traditional cake I decided to make a cheesecake based on his favourite biscuit!

I used the recipe by ‘Proper Tasty’ that had been doing the rounds on facebook and it was honestly so quick and easy that before I knew it, it was made and I’d not taken any progress pictures!

I bought the cheapo non branded version of everything and it made no difference except on the price. (I bought an extra packet of biscuits. It’s important to know yourself. I knew we’d want to eat a pack)

Make healthy choices kids! Using the protein shake bottle to measure out whipping cream

For once in my life I followed the directions exactly. Here’s a pic of it all smoothed out and ready to set in the fridge:

I cut biscuits in half using a sharp knife and decorated the top, crumbling dome in the middle too.

Happy Birthday hubby!

 

Cinnamon sugar mug cake

Me to sugar: ‘I don’t know how to quit you!’

I’m positive if I could my weight and skin complaints would all but disappear. But so would my soul.

I wanted to make a mug cake but *shock*, not a chocolate one. Maybe it was the rain, but I really fancied something hot and cinnamony (real word 😉).

I had a little Google and up popped a recipe for a ‘snickerdoodle’ mug cake. I like to think I’m pretty well versed in sweet treats from across the pond, but to my mind a ‘snickers’ is the nutty nougat chocolate bar so I was surprised when I saw there wasn’t a peanut in sight!

Snickers vs. Snickerdoodle

So, I took this recipe…

http://www.fivehearthome.com/2015/01/15/snickerdoodle-mug-cake/ …and I lazified it.

The very clever and patient author mixed cinnamon sugar separately and layered it with the cake batter. I whacked it all in and just sprinkled some extra sugar and ground cinnamon on top. It was very tasty! I sprinkled a few dark chocolate chips on top because I can’t keep away from the stuff! This would taste fab with some vanilla icing drizzled over.

I always use a huge mug, so I never have those luscious, overflowing shots. Then again I never have to clean up overspill in the microwave. I’m happy with that compromise.

Mini cheese and lentil pie

I didn’t set out to make this specifically, this recipe is all about leftovers!

Yesterday I cooked up a batch of red lentils, (dry lentils in pot with stock cube. Cover with water and bring to boil, then simmer until soft. I stirred in a carton of chopped tomatoes with onion and garlic, plus a pinch of salt, pepper, mild chilli and 1 tsp of mild tandoori powder) making enough for last nights dinner plus lunch for today.

I also happened to have a smidge of shortcrust pastry (shop bought, obvs) leftover from making hubby’s homecoming dinner ready for tonight. He’s had a busy two weeks away and we’ve missed him, so something other than my usual one-pot wonder pasta dishes is in order.

It was just enough to line and top a cutie little ramekin that I was pretty sure was oven safe! Only one way to find out! (It was)

I half filled it with the lentils, popped in some cheddar and finished with more lentils. I used a fork to seal the pastry and also look all fancy and brushed it with a bit of milk. Into the oven at 200° until golden, or in my case, golden and the lid pops off!

Yes the pastry is thick. No I am not sorry.

I made and absolute dogs dinner of getting it out of the ramekin, I ended up having to reconstruct it for the photo!

It was a very tasty little lunch. Yummy, warming and not too big. Only because had it been bigger I’d have eaten the lot and been rolling around the house all day.

Buy pre made pastry and make pies! It’s actually super lazy but looks kind of impressive!

Rose buttercream truffles

I had quite a bit of turkish delight buttercream left over from my chocolate cupcakes, I didn’t want to make more cakes and I didn’t want to throw it away.

Experiment time!!! My little mind drifted to those strawberry cremes in the Quality Street tin. I don’t really like them and they’re always the ones left at the bottom of the tin but that’s by the by.

I piped out little gems onto parchment paper and popped them into the freezer. I had already made another batch of sugared rose petals which needed a bit longer to dry thanks to the humid weather we’ve been having. Whilst the gems were setting up in the freezer I melted some plain chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

I let the chocolate cool a little, but not enough! The frozen buttercream was melting as soon as I touched it to pick one up. I shouldn’t have been surprised considering the fact they’re mostly butter but hey. I envisioned the chocolate lightly coating them and them holding their shape, but I ended up with blobs. Cue the rose petals!

I stuck them on and got those truffles in the freezer asap before the entire kitchen was engulfed in a pink, buttery chocolate mess.

They’re now in the fridge in their own paper cases. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to let them out into room temperature! Obviously I had to give one a taste test. One is enough people. The rose and plain chocolate combo is a good one but oh my golly sweet sweet sweet!

 

 

Turkish delight cupcakes

Following the sucess of my orange and lemon turkish delight for my grandma, my mum asked me to make another batch for a family birthday party.

I decided to do traditional rose flavour this time, so off I plodded to the supermarket to get what I needed. There was no gelatine sheets available so I bought Vege-gel. The directions are pretty non-committal regarding replacing gelatine but I knew how much liquid I needed to set and worked it out from there. I dissolved one sachet in water, followed by sugar, brought it to boil then allowed it to simmer. Once it was off the heat I added a few drops of rose flavouring and a few drops of pink food colouring.

I poured it into a dish lined with cling film and put it in the fridge to set. So far so good. Just like last time! It seemed to actually set faster than the original batch. I turned it out onto a mixture of icing sugar and cornflour and made the first cut. This is where it all went wrong.  It was still very wet in the middle. I could cut a sharp cube only to see it become a puddly mess right before my eyes.

I soldiered on for a bit, managing to coat each side of a few cubes before deciding to put the thing back in the fridge for another go at setting.  The cut pieces ended up absorbing so much of the sugar/cornflour mixture that I ended up with these soggy blobs in a crispy shell. This may have ended up being a thing, except they didn’t hold together when picked up.

Great. So I was left with The Blob’s little sister taking over the fridge and nothing to bring to the party. I would suggest using two sachets of Vege-gel or better still see my original turkish delight post and use that recipe. You can flavour /colour it however you want. Mine tasted of rosy failureand disappointment.

You know what fixes everything?  CUPCAKES!  My granny is partial to a Fry’s turkish delight bar so I thought I’d do chocolate cupcakes and have a bash at doing turkish delight buttercream.

I used this recipe for the cakes

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1155643/amazing-chocolate-cupcakes-

For the icing I made a basic buttercream, whisking up 150g softened butter and gradually mixing in 300g icing sugar. I whisked in a few spoonfuls of the failed turkish delight, as well as a few drops of rosewater to taste and some pink food colouring.  I’m still pretty shite at icing but I like to think my piping ended up looking like roses.

Because I will do almost anything to avoid doing housework I decided to make crystallised rose petals to decorate. It’s so super easy but they look amazing! The method I used does use raw egg so if you’re preggo it’s probably best to look up an alternative method. All you need to do is mix one egg white with a splash of water, paint it onto each side of the petals and coat with sugar! They need a few hours to dry and harden and then they’re good to go! Just make sure they’re organic/pesticide free otherwise you’ll be chomping down on all kinds of yuk.

In my humble opinion these were bloody lovely! I only ate half of one as my granny’s sister had made an epic lemon drizzle cake and I wanted in on that beauty.

 

Jaffa cupcakes

Hubby was working away all last week and during that time I forgot how to cook proper meals as I couldn’t be bothered to do real dinners only for myself. As a result I served him a very questionable dinner but luckily I hadn’t forgotten how to bake so I distracted him with Bake Off inspired cupcakes.

I used an easy cupcake recipe from http://www.annabelkarmel.com

Whilst they were cooling, I made up a sachet of orange jelly and put in the fridge to part set. I cored my cupcakes and trimmed the ‘plug’ to leave a nice little hole in the middle.

Once the jelly had begun to set but was still loose enough to pour, I filled each cupcake with a few teaspoonfuls and replaced to top. I popped them all in the fridge to allow the jelly to finish setting.

I broke up a 150g bar of plain chocolate and melted it in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. I spooned the melted chocolate over the middle of each cake and smoothed it towards the edges. Once it had cooled a bit I ran a fork over the tops to give the cross hatch effect.

 

I really wanted some jelly orange slices for decoration but could not find them anywhere so I ended up buying a whole bag of Sainsbury fruit jelly sweets. Naturally the packet I chose had only 3 of the orange slices and about a million nasty ass lime ones, so the chosen few cakes got decorations.

These little cakes are easy, very tasty and very *moist* thanks to the jelly. You could do any flavour jelly you like, or choose a different chocolate topping.

If I wanted to make a Jaffa closer to how the Bake Off contestants did it I’d have used half the amount of batter in wach case to make a smaller cake (bonus, 24 cakes instead of 12!), and fully set the jelly in a shallow dish so that I could cut out thin discs to lay on top of the cake. Make sure the chocolate is cooled before covering the tops otherwise it will melt the jelly!

Baby Burrito *does not contain real babies 😉

I had some leftover ingredients from my yummy pizzaburger experiment, plus some pre cooked brown rice I made when I thought I was going to go on a mega diet for the week (Ha! Sob).

I cooked off the remainder of the beef mince and popped some of the rice in a wok with some olive oil to warm through and added chopped tomatoes, paprika, garlic, salt n pepper etc. I split the missing between two wraps and added grated cheese because of course I would plus some watercress because then it’s basically healthy!

My rolling skills have never been great, I usually end up with a handful of wrap and a lapful of filling, but I did pretty well this time. You could fancy it up with bell peppers and dips or you could be lazy like me and have an easy tasty dinner!