Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whilst at home this weekend Scott and I baked gooey chocolate chip cookies and they were scrummy!

Usually when we decide to bake I end us baking and Scott fafs about, but this time he was very helpful and helped equally which made the biscuits/cookies extra special. Cookies are extra specially nice when their warm and the chocolate chips are still soft, and they remind me of break time in school where we'd all que to get the best warm cookies form the canteen!

Ingredients:

250g (9oz) plain flour 

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

170g (6oz) unsalted butter, melted 

200g (7oz) soft brown sugar 

100g (3.5oz) caster sugar 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

1 egg + 1 egg yolk 

250g (9oz) chocolate of your choice, chopped into small chunks

Optional - Desiccated Coconut  

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170°C / Gas mark 3-4. 

 In a big, dry bowl, sift your flour, bicarb & salt together. Set to one side.

In a separate bowl mix together your sugars & butter. 

Next beat in your eggs & vanilla extract.  Add to the dry mixture and stir thoroughly! you can add your chopped chocolate and nuts/dried fruits if you fancy (hazelnuts are good!!).

Line a baking sheet with greasproof paper and make small ball shapes out of the dough. Place on lined baking sheet quite spaced apart and cook for 10 - 13 minutes (until they are lightly bronzed at the edges). I sprinkled a little desiccated coconut on some but thats up too you!

Leave to cool on a wire rack (if you can!!)

I really like separating the yolk from the white!

I had mine once they had cooled slightly but were still soft and warm :) yum!

Scott was a big fan too and has devoured quite a few already :P...

Simple Brownies

Chocolate Brownies..... Need I say more?

They `re my ultimate cake, yes I have finally decided (for now at least) that brownies are my favoruite kind of cake. I've never been a massive sponge fan, and I'm defiantly a chocolate lover, so naturally I tend to dip towards brownies as my go-to cake when i'm out.

I've made brownies a few times myself, but never really found a recipe that worked quite right for me - until now people :)...

 Ingredients:

185g Butter

185g Dark Chocolate

85g Plain Flour

40g Cocoa Powder

100g chocolate (white,milk,or dark)

3 Large Eggs

275g Caster Sugar

Method

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over some hot water (on the stove/hob) or in the microwave if you prefer. Leave the melted mixture to cool.

Preheat your oven Gas Mark 4, or 180C   Line the bottom of a 20cm square tin (or the nearest size you have).

Mix together the flour and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl mix together the eggs and caster sugar. It's best to use a hand mixer/machine so the mixture becomes thick and creamy.

Poor the egg/sugar mixture into the cooled chocolate and butter. Fold in gently (I hate this bit). Chop the 100g chocolate into chunks (I use a sharp thick knife on the chopping board to do this). Sprinkle over the mixture, along with the dry ingredients and again fold.

Poor carefully into your lined tin. I topped mine with a few chopped pistachio's! 

Bake for 25 minutes. (ours took a little longer as Scott kept opening the oven.... The mixture should be left a little gooey, but if its still wobbling when you take it form the oven, give it another 5 minutes or so!

This is the pretty marbling effect that happens when your 'gently' (Im so impatient with folding) the brownie mixture.

I drizzled a few chopped Pistachio nuts on the top for a little colour pop! But you could try and nut or dried fruit you fancied! Cranberries and freeze dried raspberries work great too.

And then it's ready :) Ideally you should leave the brownies to cool before eating as they do taste better that way and are a lot easier to cut!

Berry Custard Flan

It's now a standing joke on family meal night that where possible I like to add toffee sauce to everything. I mean I do make my own sauce and it is very tasty and everyone likes it, I just seem to try and pair it with everything ;)

So once again this dessert was paired with a lovely homemade toffee sauce. The beautiful thing about this dessert is that it looks so pretty and tastes very yummy, but requires very little skill or effort, which is very handy when you've been paying more attention to the main course :)

This is similar to a dessert I've already posted except I changed the cream to custard and chose berries instead of strawberries ....

Ingredients:
1 store bought flan case.
custard - I used birds custard powder and made it thicker than the instructions said but you could be fancy and make your own
your jam of choice
a selection of berries or your favourite seasonal fruit.

Method:
Cook the custard according to the instructions / your recipe.  Remember to make it thicker than usual as it will need to set and hold it's shape. Place in the fridge to set and cool. (roughly and hour).
Spread an even layer of jam on the flan case, this I like to call the moist maker like on friends with the turkey sandwich episode? anyone ? no, ok...
Now spread/pour on the cold custard and return to the fridge to set again, roughly half an hour or so.
Now your flan is ready to decorate s you wish. I used raspberries, blueberries and red currents but you can choose what you like.
Layer them on top of the custard and that is it!

TOFFEE SAUCE.
1 large knob butter
3 tablespoons soft dark brown sugar
1/2 pint double cream.
 Melt the butter in pan, add the sugar, gently stirring, and then add the cream. Do not over cook, but make sure the sugar is dissolved.  I serve my toffee sauce warm so it is runny as it goes thicker is cool.

 It's a little messy to dish up, but I think that was because my custard wasn't quite thick enough, so be careful not to make it too runny..

Lastly Alfred was being a little pain as I was photographing the dessert, cheeky little worm :)

Frozen chocolate banana's

I have a new food obsession, again....

These frozen chocolate banana's are too die for, honestly, I can't describe how delicious they are (providing you like chocolate and bananas?!)

I was inspired to make some after finding them on this blog 'Smile and wave' and I couldn't wait to give them a go :) Scott absolutely hates banana's so unfortunately these weren't to his taste, but if your a banana freak like me then I can guarantee you will think these are awesome! They are also dead easy to make (a little messy) and use a lot of the ingredients I used for my Dipped chocolate ice cream cones recipe!

What you will need:

Banana's (3-4 ripe ones)

lolly pop sticks/ cake pop sticks

200g milk, dark or white chocolate

nuts, sprinkles, m&m's, marshmallows, dessicated coconut etc

 Method:
Divide you banana's into three parts per banana, roughly 3 inches each.
Now insert your lolly pop stick about 3/4 of the way up each banana.
Lay your banana's on a sheet of baking tray paper, and freeze for 2-3 hours (or overnight).

Melt your chocolate ( I use the hot water and stove method) until fully melted. Set aside for a minute or too to almost cool. While waiting you can start chopping nuts , or making small  piles of toppings.

Now there are two ways for the next step, you can either dunk the bananas into the chocolate, and then into the toppings, or you can spoon the chocolate on and then sprinkle to toppings over that way. I have to say either way is quite messy, but I preferred spooning the chocolate on.

Now place back onto the baking tray paper and freeze for about 20 minutes, or until the chocolate has set. And that's it! 

 This picture makes me giggle, it reminds me of Stonehenge almost?!

 I prefer the chopped coconut and dark chocolate version :)

 Here is a sneak peak of the chopping board I used to add the toppings with - As you can see  I'm a messy cook, but these were well worth the spilt chocolate for!

Chocolate dipped ice cream cones

Once again family meal night has been around, and last night I made these pretty little cones for dessert! They are the perfect thing for a quick effortless pudding, for children or sunny days outside! Adding your own chocolate and toppings changes the store bought cones into a more personal pudding that can then pass as you 'making' the dessert ;)

We had them after our main meal which was roasted sausages, tomatoes, red onions and swede. My Grandma wasn't here this week as she was at a writing course in Swanick with her friend, so it was my parents Scott , Grandad and I.

 

Ingredients:

Ice cream cones - I would have preferred the thicker wafer cones, but our local supermarket only had these cheapies, but they were still lovely too (and only 15 calories each??!)

milk, white or dark chocolate. - I used milk but any variety would have worked well.

A large handful of nuts - I used Pistachio's and whole Almonds

chocolate or candy sprinkles

(Or any topping of your choice - marshmallows, dolly mixtures, seeds etc)

Method:

Melt you chocolate in your desired way, I always prefer to melt it over hot water, but the microwave works well too.

Chop your nuts and place them in piles on a chopping board or clean surface. I would advise you chop them quite well, as initially i tried to leave them quite large, but after trying to put them on the cone the heavier pieces fell off. 

Roll (or spoon) the chocolate onto the top of your cone, you could also add a little bit to the bottom of the cones (inside) like Cornetto's do, I always feel a little disappointed if their is no chocolate at the bottom of my cone, but this bit is up too you!

Get read a large try, or one that will fit in the fridge/freezer. 

Now for the fun bit - Roll your cone with the melted chocolate into your piles of goodies. For my last cone I used a mixture of everything, but the one that were either just pistachio, almonds or sprinkles looked better. 

Place them in the freezer or fridge for a few minutes after adding the toppings so that they set and the sprinkles don't fall off! - And that's it!! Now your ready to add ice cream, we had Cornish clotted cream ice cream which is so yummy. 

The only problem was carrying them too the table as they were all top heavy! But if everyone takes them as soon as they are ready then there shouldn't be a problem! :) 

  

Pudding in a hurry

This dessert is a bit of a cheat, but let's face it who really cares in the end as long as it tastes good!

I was stuck for an idea for a pudding after our Thursday meal night, and nipped to the supermarket to find something to make! I could have bought a fully ready made dessert but then you loose the fun of making it and the glory when everyone devours it, so I bought the flan base and topped it with fruit and whipped cream. I also had a toffee/butterscotch sauce to drizzle on top which made it really yummy.

Ingredients:

1 large flan case

1 tablespoon of lemon curd (or another jam/jelly of your choice)

1 tablespoon of icing sugar

300 ml double cream

1 punnet of raspberries

1/2 punnet of strawberries

a few sprigs of mint

Sauce:

75g butter

78g dark brown sugar

100ml  double cream

Simply unwrap your flan case and place on a serving dish/plate. Spread a generous layer of lemon curd of jam along the top of the flan case. This helps to add more moisture as they can be a little dry, and adds a little tang. Now add the icing sugar to the cream and whip until firm but not over whipped. Spread your cream over the lemon curd layer.  Now chop your strawberries and layer them, along with the raspberries over the cream. I added a few mint leaves for colour, but that's optional! Dust with a little more icing sugar and that is all folks!

If you want a sauce- which I highly recommend, then this goes perfectly!

Melt the butter and sugar in a large pan. Stir gently and once all is melted, pour in the double cream. Mix thoroughly and pour into desired jug. I left the jug on the table so everyone could help themselves, and it was very popular!

It's also really good on ice cream or on its own on a spoon if you have no will power like myself....