Skip to main content

So much free time!!


So. Exam over. Friday I went out briefly for steak and lemon meringue pie. Wasn't an amazing pie but at least it was a good sized slice. Saturday featured the joys of Watford shopping centre and a fashion show. I love them. Pity the poor models who have to dance in high heels on a stage designed almost to trip them up. It's a hard life. Even if you do look hot.

Sunday was rainy. So it had to be done. BAKE FEST!! I went straight for the cookies book. Fortunately there was a bit of planning involved. I spent the Saturday stocking up on flour and various chocolate chips and coconut, just in case there was an opportunity! I did, I confess, not make any of the recipes that I had listed. Instead I opted for the classic - chocolate chip and a vanilla cookie. The aim was to make use of the Hello Kitty cookie cutters I have from HK. Unfortunately, as you can see, they didn't really show up (although as I've just noticed, a ghost of Hello Kitty is in the top corner of that heart). Will have to push harder next time or make a stiffer cookie.

The vanilla cookie is called the Teatime sugar cookie in the Ultimate cookie book. Very sticky dough and so extra flour was called for.

The chocolate chunk cookie recipe I adjusted a lot but still not enough. Critique from father was (funnily enough) was firstly "they're not cooked yet" - "no dad, that's a white chocolate chip", the second I agreed with - 10% less sugar. As it was we reduced the sugar by half a cup in the first place. Plus I suppose I used a pack of white chips which are infinitely sweeter. Must re-jig next time I make them.


Chocolate chunk cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup plain flour
2 packs chocolate chip (about 200g)

Gas Mark 5

1. Beat butter with sugar
2. Add everything else in order, beating in the flour gradually. It is slightly drier than my usual chocolate chip recipes.
3. Place rounded teaspoonfuls on an ungreased baking sheet. I put five walnut sized blobs per sheet.
4. Bake for approximately 8 minutes.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rachel Allen's Chicken Pie

Some things should be noted. I'm not a major fan of Rachel Allen. She always seemed such a poor man's version of Nigella. Some trophy wife of a producer somewhere making a lady of leisure's living of cookery shows playing up the Irish accent in a cavernous show kitchen. Perhaps it was because all her helpful "tricks" had already been touted by others a long time ago - like getting the garlic smell out of your hands... But over the years she's kind of grown on me. The format is a little twee, the pink accessories want to make me barf, but she isn't the spawn of all things faux goddess anymore. (FYI I have no idea with regards to her personal life etc, but like my distaste for Ashley Judd, one wonders how she gets good films with little acting skill.) So here I was, tapping away on the internet last week whilst she was on tv, and there it was. A beast of a pie. It was so beautiful. Her job was done. Out I trotted to buy a huge pie dish (we don't own cera...
4 comments
Read more

Low carb diet plan

It's January. I've allowed my weight to grow UP with the Covid curve and somehow it still has not come down. Thanks to a large part to me using up a number of hot chocolate bomb "fails" just before Christmas I think. Wall of text alert - I don't plan on ever writing about this ever again. To be clear, I've never been a fan of carb-cutting. Cutting an entire food group seems wrong. Carbs, as we were taught at school, are cornerstones for growth. I felt like decking a "doctor" at an annual work health check when he told me to cut carbs as a way to get my weight down. The fact he then pushed a blog which was at its infancy at the time felt like a distinct conflict of interest. Anyway, I do absolutely agree I need to cut sugar, and I will never disagree that whole grains are better for you. It is also very, very effective dieting wise on me. We don't know why, I do know I have a lot of water weight which fluctuates a lot in the month and also it does...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ginger fluff sponge with Apple Sauce filling

This is from the Crabapple Bakery cupcake cookbook. I've loved this cake for ages, looking at the picture for some time, but finally I made it. Decoration wise I don't have any flowers to put on top so I put the little chocolate mushrooms I bought from the Japan centre on top. This cake I'd definitely remake, but without the sponge fingers which are decoration only and don't add anything. They stay stiff and unyielding against the cream which is almost a disappointment when you're eating it. Ingredients: 1/3 self raising flour 1/3 cup cornflour 3 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp cocoa 5 eggs, separated 3/4 cup caster sugar 1 tbsp golden syrup - Apple sauce - Whipped cream - Sponge fingers (250g pack works fine) Method: 1. Mix all the dry ingredients (bar sugar) together 2. Beat egg whites to peaks, add sugar and keep whisking, then add yolks and golden syrup 3. Fold dry into the egg mix 4. Bake in two greased pans (18-20cm round sandwich tins) for 15 mi...
Post a Comment
Read more