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!

Stewed Plums

Stewed plums are one of my favourite child hood puddings that I had when I went to my Grandma's house. They came from a Chef who used to work at The Midland Hotel In Manchester, and then found their way into my grandma's amazing recipe book which is full of yummy timeless recipes that she has collected over the years.

 The recipe is potentially the easiest recipe ever, Providing you are not horrified by the amount of sugar!

Ingredients:

roughly 6 plums

5 ounces of sugar at least.

1/2 Pint water.

Place your plums in a pan along with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil, and simmer until the plums are tender but not falling apart. Once this is done fish them plums out with a spoon into your desired serving bowl. With the juice left in the pan, turn up the heat and make a syrup with the sugary plum water. You want the juice to thicken and be sticky and sweet. Once this is done pour over the plums. You can serve them hot or cold,  but I personally like them cold with a scoop of clotted cream.

If you have left over juices, it makes a wonderful salad dressing or a sauce for the top of ice cream and other puddings.

As you can see the water takes on the plum colour which is the most wonderful rich pink! I love when food looks good, but to me it's more about the taste, but this sauce really has a wonderful aesthetic to it which makes it all even better!

This is the recipe from my Grandma's recipe book. It is such a special book and is now one of our family's prized possessions. The book has a hand written index and is meticulously labelled from large cakes to soups, main meals and cooked meats. The cover and pages are that used that it all has to be kept in a large bag so it doesn't deteriorate. I love how precious it is to my Grandma, and how she has always shown me how to do recipes from there since I was young.

I served the plums for dessert as part of my family meal night on Thursday, and it was enjoyed by all!