Bank Holiday Baking

Today in England it is Bank Holiday Monday and it is of course raining. If you're British you'll know that this comes as no huge surprise, Bank Holidays never bring sunshine. I think we always have our fingers crossed that there will be an unexpected heatwave for this day off work - more fool us!

To cheer up this miserable day I decided to bake something warm and delicious. My recipe of choice today came from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food cookery book and with Autumn just around the corner (hurrah for wooly jumpers and Chelsea boots!) this book is undoubtedly going to be well thumbed. The 'Devil's Double Choc Malt Cookies' were my first stop.

You will need:
50g unsalted butter
200g quality dark chocolate (70%)
1 x 397g tin of condensed milk
25g ground almonds
2 heaped teaspoons Horlicks
200g self-raising flour
100g Maltesers
50g quality white chocolate

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees/ gas 3

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in pan until smooth

Remove from the heat and stir in the condensed milk, almonds & Horlicks

Sift in the flour & a pinch of sea salt. Mix together

Leave to chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Once cooled, smash up the Maltesers and add in the white chocolate in small chunks. *I didn't use the 100g of Maltesers as it was already chocolatey enough for me. Add in as many as you like*

Grease proof two large baking trays and roll golf ball size chunks of the mixture before slightly flattening them and placing them in the oven for 12 minutes (or until they are slightly firm at the edges)

And Ta-Da!

I'm really pleased with how these turned out and I even have some mixture left over which I rolled into the right shape and put in the freezer for another rainy day. If you're feeling extra greedy (I was) then sandwich two cookies together with vanilla ice cream. Thanks to Mr Oliver I am now full to the brim but it was most certainly worth it.

Alex x

Rainy Day Flapjacks

As I type this it is 26th July and it is raining. Full on puddles in the road, need an umbrella, raining. I'm not sure what has happened to summer so to brighten up my day I decided to make flapjacks from a recipe that my dear friend gave me. As he handed me the recipe he said 'Don't show this to anyone else' so naturally I'm sharing it with the blogging world but it's too delicious not to. I won't tell if you won't. 

You'll Need

100g margarine 

1tbsp golden syrup

100g brown sugar

50g Self Raising Flour

50g Oats 

75g Crushed up Cornflakes/Special K

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees/ Gas Mark 5

What to do

1. Combine the margarine with the golden syrup in a bowl

2. Pour in all of the dry ingredients into a separate bowl and gently whisk together

3. Add the margarine and golden syrup to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix until all incorporated together (It will seem as though there isn't enough margarine to mould it all together but there definitely is)

4. Grease a baking tin and spread the mixture in evenly (I found that one which was narrower in width helped as this allowed the flapjack to rise and be a bit chunkier)

5. Bake for 20 minutes

6. Cut into squares whilst warm

It really is the simplest recipe and if you like your flapjack sticky and chewy then this is the one for you. 

Please excuse my rather shoddy looking final piece. It's difficult to make oats look pretty - I'm not sure how the professionals do it. In other words I'm not sure how the professionals take their time to get it out of the tin without crumbling it all in a greedy haste. Al à me. I promise I'll work on that. 

Rest assured it still tasted delicious.

Love,

Alex xx