White Chocolate Chunk Brownies Recipe

With the horrible Winter weather, there seems nothing more appealing than staying in and indulging in something sweet. As I am sure you all know, I love doing a bit of baking in my free time and this time I was all about brownies. Who doesn’t love a good brownie!? I also happen to be a huge white chocolate fan and basically find a way to put it into anything so today’s recipe features brownies with white chocolate chunks, yummy!

Ingredients

225g butter

5 eggs

450g caster sugar

110g plain flour

55g cocoa powder

40g chocolate (milk/dark or mix) chopped

100g-150g white chocolate (broken into chunks)

Method

Firstly, pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C.

Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan over heat.

Remove from heat and add in milk/dark chocolate (usually dark with brownies but just suggested milk as I prefer it!), eggs, flour and cocoa powder and mix. Then add in chocolate chunks, distributing them evenly in the mixture.

Then place into a tin and bake for 30-40 mins until the top has hardened but still soft inside.

Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Are you a fan of brownies?

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Christmas Sugar Cookies

If there is one thing I love to do at Christmas time, it is baking. When I have a little free time on my hands, I love to try out a new recipe and especially something Christmas inspired at this time of year to get that festive feeling! This time around I thought I would bake something easy and went with cookies/biscuits that I could decorate all pretty and Christmas-y. So if you are looking for something easy to bake over the festive period, then this is a nice simple one I thought I would share with you all. All credit for this recipe comes from here. It’s been a while since I last did a foodie post so enjoy!

Ingredients 

100g margarine/butter

1 egg

100g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

275g plain flour

Icing sugar and sprinkles for decoration

Method 

Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 190C/Gas mark 5.

Cream the sugar and butter together.

Mix in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time until all is combined.

Then, stir in the flour until it forms into a dough texture.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and use cutters to cut the cookies out.

Place on a baking tray and cook for approx 10 mins until light golden brown.

Allow to cool whilst preparing icing using icing sugar and water.

Finally, add your own decoration using sprinkles, icing etc.

What do you like to bake at Christmas?

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Cream and Jam Scones Recipe

We all know what Wednesdays mean, right? Of course I am talking about the excitement of another installment of Great British Bake Off! So in the spirit of all things GBBO I thought I would share a little typical British baking recipe. You can’t get more British than a good scone with jam and cream along side a cuppa, right? Apologies to those from across the waters who have no idea what I am talking about! Anyway wherever you are from I encourage you to try this fab recipe and release your inner british-ness…?

Ingredients

225g self-raising flour

40g butter

25g caster sugar

150ml milk

Strawberry Jam

Whipped Cream

Method

Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 220C/Gas mark 7.

Then, mix the flour and butter.

Then, add in the sugar and milk until a soft dough is formed.

On a floured surface, knead the dough and roll out to around a 2cm thickness.

Using a cutter, cut out scones until the dough is used up.

Then place on a lined baking tray.

Brush a little bit of milk over the tops of the scones.

Then bake for 15 minutes until risen and a golden colour.

Are you a fan of scones?

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Vanilla Cupcakes

Everyone loves cupcakes, right!? I for one certainly do and today I thought I would share a simple cupcake recipe with you all. This is a super easy recipe that I rely on all the time (recipe book source) when it comes to baking these cute sweet treats. I then added some sweet tasting vanilla frosting on top with a sprinkle of even more sweetness. Its a quick and simple to follow recipe that everyone needs to know, so without a further a do…

Ingredients 

150g margarine

150g caster sugar

150g self-raising flour

3 eggs

2.5ml (half teaspoon) vanilla extract

First things first, you need to preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180C/350F. Then fill a baking tray with paper cupcake cases. Then to begin all you do is simply add in all the ingredients together in one bowl and whisk until smooth and of a dropping consistency. Then divide the mixture between the cases (the number the recipe will make depends on the size of cases) and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Then after allowing the cakes to cool, you can make the vanilla frosting. I never really stick to an exact recipe when making butter-cream frosting but I suggest following a recipe like this and then you can simply adjust how much you need. Then I used a piping bag to pipe the icing on and then sprinkled over some sprinkles or edible cake decorations and thats it. Was that super simple or was that super simple!?

Are you a fan of Vanilla Cupcakes?

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White Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

If there is something I could eat for the rest of my life it would probably be white chocolate cookies (preferably Millie’s!). Yet despite my love for a bit of baking, one thing I have always struggled to make was a good batch of cookies. That may seem a bit daft since they are probably one of the easiest things to make but yeah I may have struggled. I found a recipe from BBC Good Food and thought I would give cookie baking another go… luckily it wasn’t as bad as I expected!

Ingredients

125g butter/margarine

100g light brown soft sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g self-raising flour

½ tsp salt

200g white chocolate chips

Firstly, preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Then cream the margarine and sugars together. Then, add the the egg and vanilla extract. Then add in the flour, salt and white chocolate chips.

Then roll the doughy like mixture into ball shapes (like above). Then place in the oven until the edges go golden or as suggested for Millie’s style cookies 7 minutes. Then when ready, take out the oven and leave for a few minutes before putting them onto a cooling tray to cool. Then enjoy, p.s. they taste incredible when just out the oven! A quick and simple recipe which tastes pretty damn good! Now looks like I am off to make more cookies!

Are you a cookie lover like myself?

Mini Meringues

So its been a while since I last did a baking post, with uni taking over pretty much my whole life I haven’t really had time to stick in head in a recipe book lately. I was lucky enough to have a day off this week and thought I would do a little baking. When it comes to baking, I try to experiment a little and try new things. I used to always stick to cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes but it is quite exciting baking something a little different. Now I am no stranger to meringues, I do enjoy whipping up a good Pavlova but I have never made smaller individual ones so now was my time. Mini meringues sandwiched together with cream, whats not to love!?

Ingredients

3 egg whites

180g caster sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

Food colouring (optional)

150ml cream (approx)

Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 1/  . Firstly, beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff (you can try the put the bowl over your head trick, the egg whites should be stuck to the bowl and not fall out!). Then stir in a spoonful of sugar *sings Mary Poppins*, one at a time until all the sugar is mixed in and the mixture appears glossy. Also add the vanilla extract.

Then if desired you can add food colouring if you wish to colour your meringues. Then deposit the mixture into a piping bag and pipe small swirls onto baking paper ready for the oven. Place in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes – 2 hours until the meringues are crispy on the outside but soft in the inside.

When they are ready, allow to cool. Then whip up some cream and spread on the flat side of a meringue and sandwich with another. Fini!

Are you a fan of meringues?

Lemon Drizzle Muffins

So for Christmas I received a baking calender for 2015 featuring a different recipe for each month and the recipe featured in January was Lemon Drizzle Muffins. I am a huge fan of anything with lemon in it especially cake so I was looking forward to giving this recipe a try. These are quite different to anything I’ve made before, being muffins rather than cupcakes they are more heavier and they had a slight different taste with the use of brown sugar. Nevertheless I can see myself reaching for this recipe again.

Ingredients

350g self-raising flour

1/2 level tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

75g brown sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon

75g melted butter

2 eggs

300ml semi skimmed milk

75g icing sugar

2tsp lemon juice

Method

First of all pre-heat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.

In a bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon rind. Mix

Then add the butter, eggs and milk and stir until combined.

Then divide the cake mixture between 12 paper muffin cases and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and risen.

Then to make the lemon icing, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice and drizzle over the muffins.

To finish you can also add some decoration on top like lemon sprinkles.

 

Gingerbread Men

As the countdown to Christmas has begun I have a nice little festive recipe for you all today 🙂 I have never made Gingerbread cookies before and I really wanted to be all christmassy and try them out. These are the perfect treats for making with children, hanging on your tree, as gifts or just for eating! I picked this recipe up from the BBC here and its fab, my kitchen filled with the festive scent of gingerbread, so worth it!

Ingredients

350g (12oz) plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

125g (4 ½ oz) margarine

175g (6oz) light soft brown sugar

1 egg

4tbsp golden syrup

The first step is to make the dough. Using a food processor mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and the butter and blend until it forms into breadcrumbs. Then Stir in the sugar. Then beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the mixture. Then take the dough out and wrap in cling-film and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Then roll out the dough and cut out the gingerbread men shapes using a cookie cutter.

Then place on a lined baking tray in place in a pre-heated oven at Gas mark 4/180C/350F. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Then place them on a cooling rack for 10 minutes until they have cooled.

Then its time to be all creative and add some decorations. I went a little crazy and dripped icing and chocolate everywhere buy why not! I melted chocolate, made glacé icing and added sprinkles, but you can do whatever you fancy!

 

Chocolate Pavlova

Hey there, so at the weekend I whipped up one of my favourite desserts ever .. Pavlova. If you aren’t familiar with the beauty of a Pavlova well basically its a huge meringue with cream on top and fruit, its amazinnngg. This was the first time however I decided to make a chocolate one rather than just an ordinary plain meringue and I used a slightly different recipe this time which is actually one of Nigella Lawson’s which you can find here, however I made a few odd changes. While they always appear to look a right mess (or is that just when I make them..) they taste incredible so do try this out if you haven’t made one 🙂

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

300g caster sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder (sieved)

50g dark chocolate (finely chopped)

Preheat over to Gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF. So first of all, beat the egg whites in a bowl until it begins to peak and then add in the sugar one spoonful at a time until its nice and glossy.

Then add in the cocoa powder and the chopped chocolate and mix.

Then place the mixture in a circle on baking paper on a baking tray. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to Gas Mark 2/180°C/350ºF and cook for 1 hour and 15 mins or until crispy round the edges. Then allow to cool. Then whip up some cream (I used a 284ml tub) and place on top of the meringue and add some chopped strawberries (or fruit of your choice) and some sprinkled chocolate.

And Voila!