White Chocolate and Almond Cookies!

These cookies are definitely some of the nicest cookies I've ever made. Ever. 

They're crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. Crammed full of white chocolate, they're so great to eat as a real sweet treat or give to guests at Christmas. Everyone will love them, I guarantee. You can use macadamia nuts or peanuts instead, as long as they're not salted. Hazelnuts will be very bitter in this recipe, so I wouldn't recommend them.

These cookies are really easy to make and so delicious.  I love them. 

Ingredients:

• 100g butter/margarine
• 75g caster sugar
• 75g soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150g white chocolate, chopped (or white chocolate chips)
• Handful of sliced almonds

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/Gas 4/160 degrees fan oven. 
2. Beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract and combine.
3. Chop the chocolate before adding to the mixture, and then add the almonds, flour, bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt. Mix well. 
4. Roll in to small bowls or just scoop out with a spoon and place on a greased baking tray. Flatten them with a fork or spoon to your desired size.
5. Bake for 11-14 minutes, cool on racks, and enjoy! 

 
 Tell me what you think of these cookies! I hope you enjoy them ♥
 

Cheerio Cookies!

Hi everyone! Today, mum and I did some more baking (we bake a lot in this house). I thought I'd share with you the recipe I used to make some Cheerio Cookies! They are delicious and I hope you make them yourself. 

Ingredients:

• 100g Margarine
• 100g sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 175g self raising flour
• 30g Cheerios or any other cereal you like!

 Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees Celcius/140 fan oven. 

Cream together the margarine, sugar and golden syrup until smooth. 

Add the self raising flour and mix in to the butter mixture. 

Combine the cereal with the cookie mix until fully mixed together.

Use a dessert spoon to put on to a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

And the finished product should look something like this. Decorate with some chocolate chips if you want, depending on personal taste. 

The cookies should be crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. A tip on how to do this well is to take the trays out of the oven after around 10 minutes of baking and hit on the side of a work surface or on the oven shelf. This makes them even softer in the middle and improves the texture :)

Hope you like them! They are so easy to make and it's good to get everyone involved. The recipe makes around 20 cookies. Let me know what you think! 
xxxxx  

 

Baking day...

My mum and I had no idea what we wanted to do this afternoon, until I suggested doing some baking! We made some fruity tea loaf, fairy cakes and I invented a recipe for some muesli bars. 
I only got pictures of the fairy cakes so I thought I'd post some piccies and also give a recipe for anyone who is thinking of making them.

So here they are before I iced them - all warm and fluffy and they smelled gorgeous; I just wanted to eat one there and then!

And here's them when they were finished! They look so colourful and delicious, we can barely stop ourselves from eating them all.

So here's the recipe... it's simple, quick and easy.

Ingredients:
4oz self raising flour
40z  caster sugar
4oz margarine or butter
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
      For the icing:
Pack ready-to-roll icing
2oz icing sugar
1oz margarine
Water
Hundreds and thousands

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees (170 fan oven). 
2. Mix all the main ingredients together (an electric mixer is a lot quicker and easier!)
3. Line a baking tray with fairy cake paper cases and spoon about a dessert-spoon-ful in to each one. 
4. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.
5. Leave the cakes to cool. Roll the icing out to about 1/2cm thick and use a cutter the size of the top of your cakes. 
6. Mix the margarine and icing sugar together to form a butter icing and spread on to each cake. Then, take the cut out icing and place on top.
7. Use a pastry brush  to brush water over the top of each cake and then dip in to a plate of hundreds and thousands. Believe it or not, they will stick and stay there!

I love baking. I find it so therapeutic because you put all these random ingredients together, put it in the oven and it comes out as an amazing, new, tasty creation that you've done all on your  own or with friends. It's so fun and relaxing and all though because of my M.E. I have to get some help when I do it, I still find it fun and I love inventing new recipes.
Everyone should have a go at baking because homemade treats are always 100x nicer than bought. Also, this recipe is so simple that even the most amateur of bakers can make them successfully. 

Until next time, 
Ellie x x x x