Mini Date and Pecan Pies

Hello there,

Yesterday I showed you how to make mini pumpkin pies. Knowing how to make these absolutely to-die for pecan versions and not sharing with you is just cruel.

I once tried a pecan pie slice. It was amazing. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. It was nutty and caramelly. Words really cannot describe it's excellence.

These are definitely worth the hideous amount you pay for pecan nuts (we are talking $6/100g). The best thing about these ones is that you only need one nut per pie. So say you are making 30, you only need 30 nuts. Although I did chop a few up and pop them in the mixture. I don't think you need to do that though.

You will make friends for life with these pies. They are that good. Pretty sure a few boys could be seduced with these things too.

I found a recipe for baby pecan pies on Jo Seagars website which was really simple. I then found another pecan pie variation with dates in them on the Fisher and Paykel blog. I love dates, sure I coudn't afford fresh ones but I could use dried ones to bulk up the pecan pie mixture so I could get more bang for my buck. The dates leant a lovely dark sugary caramel flavour to the pies, more than what the brown sugar lends. I soaked my dates in hot water for a few minutes then chopped them up. This way they became nice and juicy.

As I had far too many things to do, I decided to cheat in the pastry department. I don't have a food processor to help me out and my skills in the pastry department are significantly lacking. I'm sorry. I have let you down.

To cut out the pastry to fit the mini muffin trays I used, I used the lid of a marmite jar. The cut out you use needs to have a diameter of 5-6cm. Luckily I was lent the most amazing of tools for helping me line the muffin trays. Before making these I had never seen a tart tamper in my life (probably due to my avoidance of all things pastry). It fit perfectly into the muffin trays and allowed me to press the pastry in evenly and without forming lump or hole. Try spraying your tamper with a bit of baking oil then dipping it in some flour. This will stop it from sticking the the pastry when you press it in. Those little toys are genius!

Luckily Alix prefers the pumpkin pies whilst I am team pecan, so no arguments over who gets the last one there :).

Mini Date and Pecan Pies
Adapted from Jo Seagar's recipe 
makes 30

2 sheets, pre rolled sweet crust pastry
24 pecan nuts (1 cup)
1/2 cup dried dates, soaked in boiling water, drained and finely chopped
1 egg
60g butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 mini muffin trays
baking spray
rolling pin (or a bottle of cider haha)
flour for dusting the bench with
5-6cm circle cutter (eg a marmite lid)
a tart tamper (or fingers if aesthetics aren't of the biggest concern)


Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake. Spray the mini muffin trays generously with baking spray.

Flour the bench and carefully roll out the prerolled pastry a little thinner (so it stretches out another cm or so in both directions).

Take the cutter you are using and cut circles out of the pastry. Using the tart tamper or your fingers, carefully line each muffin tray with pastry shells.

Place a pecan nut inside each shell, you can break them into smaller bits if you wish.

In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Mix in the mushy dates. Whisk until the mixture is thick and 'gluey'.

Spoon a teaspoon and a bit of the mixture into each pie shell.

Bake for 17 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before twisting each pie to release it from the muffin tray. Leave them to cool on a wire rack or clean tea towel.

Don't forget to respray the tins for the next lot that you cook. They can easily become very stuck if there is any left over pastry crumbs in the bottom too.

Mini Pumpkin and Mini pecan pies :)

These are best served warm. If you are making these in advance, store them in an air tight container once they are fully cool. You can heat them up for a few seconds in the microwave.

Enjoy! (I know we did :))

Sophie x

Mini Pumpkin Pies

I got sent a free turkey.

Win.

Turkey is a Thanksgivingy food. Thanksgiving means pie. Pumpkin Pie. I like pie.

I am hosting a Thanksgiving dinner party where this beast of a turkey bird will be served as the main attraction. But as we all know a great show is lacking when there isn't a delicious finale at the end of it.

By finale I mean dessert. The most important meal of all.

My first and only previous experience of pumpkin pie was when my Auntie Rachel made it one year (for Christmas I think). I loved it. It was great. Mum however wasn't so much a fan. She got a bit weirded out by a vegetable (slash actually a fruit) and sugar combination thrown into a sweet pie. To me that sounds excellent. Unfortunately I do not own a decent pie dish. There is only a quiche dish here. Great sadness I know. Then I thought, hey! what's better than a pie? Lots of mini pies! Everything is better in miniature. Like mini bagels. They are amazing.

(I'll tell you how to make the pecan ones tomorrow :))

I found a recipe to sort of follow in my Hummingbird Cookbook (of course). I was feeling lazy as I had a whole tonne of other things I needed to do so I bought some pre rolled sweet crust pastry. Sure it isn't as good as homemade but it sure is easier.

The recipe calls for 424g of tinned pumpkin puree. Last time I checked they don't sell that here. I googled the best way to make my own. The Pioneer Woman helped me out with this one. I baked around 700g of fresh pumpkin and it yielded me bang on 425g. Phew!

Because I was using mini muffin trays to cook these, the pie cases only held half a tablespoon of filling in each one. I only had enough pastry to make 30ish of these (I needed to save the other half of the pastry for my mini pecan pies later) and so I was left with quite a bit of left over filling. That is ok though, i'll just buy some more pastry and make some more later.

Mini Pumpkin Pies
makes 50-60
adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

4 sheets, pre rolled sweet short crust pastry
425g pumpkin puree (see here for instructions)
235ml evaporated milk
220g castor sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon flour
baking spray

mini muffin trays
a tart tamper
a 5cm circle shape you can use as a pastry cutter


Mix together the pumpkin, spices, evaporated milk, sugar, egg and flour with a wooden spoon until a smooth mixture is formed.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees on bake. Generously spray the mini muffin trays with baking spray.

Lightly flour your bench a place on it a defrosted sheet of sweet, short crust pastry.

Using the 5cm circle, cut out circles from the pastry. Using the tart tamper (or your fingers if you don't mind them being all knobbly) press the pastry circle into the mini muffin hole. Make sure there aren't any holes in the base.

Once you have filled up the tray with the cases, spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons (or half a tablespoon) of the pumpkin filling  mixture into each case.

Bake for 17 minutes or until the filling stops wobbling.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before twisting the mini pies in their trays to release them. Leave to cool on a clean tea towel or cake rack. Repeat until you have used up all your pastry and/or filling.

These are best eaten warm but are still delicious the next day. Once they are fully cooled, place them in an airtight container.

My favourite new (borrowed) toy!

My rolling pin for the day.

We made four bigger pies out of the pastry scraps we had left :) nom!

I know what I am thankful for! That brilliant tart tamper device!

Nom!!

Enjoy! (I know Alix did)

Sophie x

Funfetti Birthday Cake: A cake for Chris

Or as I like to call it: A cake that looks like a magical unicorn threw up into it.

Charming.

This pretty, girly, colourful cake is for Chris' 21st. The same Chris that broke up with me last week. Despite that I am still making him a birthday cake. His punishment for breaking up with me is that it is not banana cake. Oooh take that Chris! Instead it gets to be whatever the hell I want it to be. Since I found a 190g packet of hundreds and thousands in my cupboard I decided to make a funfetti cake.

I first got the idea for funfetti off this post by Rosie from Sweetapolita. She has made both a cake and cupcakes. I tried out adding sprinkles to my cupcakes a few months back. They were so fun to make and eat. So logically a whole cake with that much internal colour would be infinitely times better.

I just took my simple vanilla cupcake recipe and multiplied it by four then split the mixture into three 20cm cake tins and baked for around 45 minutes on around 170 degrees. I turned the temp right down to stop the cakes from doming. When they dome I have to cut the tops off, throwing away precious cake and precious height. My oven is weird, half the time it fan forces and the other half of the time it doesn't. If your oven is on a steady bake then you can probably increase the temp to just 180 degrees.

I wrote the above before the cakes came out of the oven. I obviously spoke too soon. For some strange reason the sugar decided to all sink to the bottom and form a hard sticky purpley brown toffee at the bottom. The first two to go in had hollows in the sides. It looked like I had taken massive bites from the cake. I swear I hadn't. Even more strange is that the third cake turned out beautifully. It was the picture of cake perfection. One of the cakes however was so munted that it was lop sided, a terrible cake for layering. So in record speed I whipped up another batch for a single layer and threw it in the oven. Alas the gym had to be delayed another forty minutes. The scientist in me decided to use a different brand of 100s and 1000s. When I added the previous brand, all the colour ran off into the mixture very quickly. When I added the new brand the 100s and 1000s held their colour. This could perhaps have had an impact. Maybe the sugar wasn't dissolved enough in the first batch. When making cakes out of these cupcake recipes you absolutely need to use castor sugar over normal sugar. In the larger batches there just isn't time for the sugar to dissolve properly.

I wish there were more than just two of us in the flat sometimes. Today is the perfect day to be making scones while it sporadically rains. Unfortunately, it takes a long time for just two people to eat batches of anything and since we are not obese we don't really like the idea of having baked goods lying around all the time for us to eat. We need a few guys around the place I think. They would hoover down anything giving them the satisfaction of eating home baking and me the satisfaction of making it. Win win. Funnily enough, Chris didn't/doesn't have much of a sweet tooth so he was never much help in the consumption department.

I'm still thinking of that Jon Snow look alike that I saw yesterday. I wish my phone had a face scanner feature, sort of like what shazam does for music. You could just sneaky take a photo of someone and the app could tell you who they were. Then you could stalk them on facebook and them plan to 'accidentally' bump into them. Ok I need to stop being so creepy. Now. If the Jon Snow look alike is reading this (highly unlikely) I apologise for this creepiness. I am actually normal (most of the time).

Sooo where was I? ah right. I'm making a cake. A cake with lots of sprinkles. How exciting.


Vanilla Funfetti Birthday Cake
Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe
makes 3x20cm cakes

560g castor sugar
160g butter, softened
480g flour
2 tablespoon baking powder
4 large eggs
480ml (2 cups) whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
150g 100s and 1000s or other colourful sprinkles

Vanilla buttercream icing:
700g icing sugar, sifted
150g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
A few tablespoons whole milk


Preheat the oven to 160 degrees bake. Like three 20cm sandwich tins with baking paper and grease around the sides.

Beat together the butter and sugar until all the sugar lumps have been broken down. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and beat until a sandy consistency is achieved.

In a separate bowl, whizz the eggs with the beater so they become a little frothy.

Add half the milk to the dry mixture, beat then add half the egg mixture, beat. Add the rest of the milk, beat again. Then add the rest of the egg and beat on high for a few minutes to smooth out the batter. Remember to regularly scrape down the sides of the bowl so you don't miss any bits. Pour in your sprinkles and lightly mix. If you mix too much the colour bleeds and you get a cake mixture that looks like a giant's snot rather than a unicorns stomach contents.

Using a large cup measure, scoop the batter evenly between the three tins.

Place as many of the tins as you can on the same shelf (don't use two shelves) and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool before tipping them out onto a cooling rack. I made the mistake of taking them out too early when I made my brothers birthday cake a few weeks ago. The cakes sank and caused the edges to bulge making getting a smooth side very difficult.

Leave to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar together, adding a bit of milk to smooth it together. Beat until the icing is really light in colour and fluffy. Don't forget to add the vanilla, or whatever flavour you want it to be. I might actually add a bit of strawberry to this icing.

Follow the Whisk-kids instructions here on how to ice a cake properly :)

I hope this cake brings endless joy to your next birthday celebration and gives you less angst and frustration that it did for me.

So the next day at Chris' 21st was the moment of truth. To be honest the cake didn't last long enough to be examined by anyone properly so I was safe!

On a non-cake related note, I learnt a great deal about how to spit roast a whole lamb carcass that day. When Chris said he was having a barbecue for his birthday I assumed they were going to try and get the crappy rusty thing at the back of his flat to work. Oh no, they  got these people in who bring with them at 7.30am a 3m long spit roast barbecue and cook to perfection whatever whole animal you prefer. It was great. I'm pretty sure I had my years quota of red meat that day. It just melted in your mouth (well you would expect it to after being cooked for four and a half hours. 

So yes, happy birthday Chris.

Enjoy!
Sophie x

Mini Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

I got an excellent text this afternoon calling for a girls night this evening. I decided that it would be most unladylike of me not to bring anything to share.

Recently I have been stalking the pages of a local student blogger Nessie, who writes Baking=love. She is amazing. I have epic blog envy. Her photography is beautiful and she always has this wonderful rustic feel to her photos.

In my stalking I found this scrumptious looking recipe for baked cinnamon doughnuts that she got from another awesome blogger Erica. They didn't require anything I didn't already have so I decided to give them a go.

Turns out our empty packet of nutmeg was put back in the cupboard so I had to substitute the missing nutmeg with more cinnamon. Terribly tragic.

On a side note, today whilst walking back from uni I saw an exact look alike of the guy who plays Jon Snow in GOT. OH MY GOD. I had to resist my feminine instinct to stalk him down the street but alas the call to New World was too great. He was amazing. I regret not walking in the complete opposite direction that I was going to follow him. Wow that just sounds creepy. I shall pray to be reunited with him again. Creepsaurous. Speaking of which I love this video.

On a second side note, when I got home, I put my things on the kitchen table and when I turned around I found a wee cat. This cat was intent on staying. I had to throw it out though once it starting scratching out couches.

Cinnamon Doughnut Mini Muffins
(makes around 30)
Adapted from Baking=love who adapted it from Erica's Sweet Tooth.

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder

Sugar coating:
80g butter, melted
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake and grease up three 12 pan mini muffin trays with plenty of melted butter.

Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Then add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until all the egg has fluffed up and the volume has almost doubled.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Sprinkle in a third of this flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Beat until just combined. Pour in half the milk and mix until combined. Add the next third, beat. Add the rest of the milk, beat. Add the rest of the flour and you guessed it, mix until just combined.

Spoon teaspoonful amounts into the greased muffin trays.

Bake for 12 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Once they are cool enough to pop out of their trays without falling apart (about a minute) dip each mini muffin into the butter, and roll around to coat. Then roll around in a bowl of the sugar and cinnamon to coat.

Eat them as soon as you can :) Or leave to cool completely before putting them in an airtight container.

All ready for tonight :)


I hope this satisfies your rainy day comfort munchies.

Enjoy :)

Sophie x

Morning Glory Muffins

More like 'soon it will be morning' muffins.

I started making these at around 11pm.

I got upset and angry and as sad as it sounds I know I can always count on a trip to the supermarket and a quickie baking sesh to fix me right no matter how late it is.

So we went to Countdown, Alix needed study munchies and I needed crushed pineapple. And mini Whitakers almond bars. And carrots. And prunes. And apricots. And an apple.

I was going to make these next week anyway as part of my study muffin series, so I justified this as I was really saving time in the future. Plus they have carrots and fruit in them. They are basically your 5+ a day in one delicious muffin. Or not.

So the story of the morning glory muffin begins in a cafe a woman named Pam McKinstry owned called the Morning Glory Cafe on the island of Nantucket in the US. She published the recipe in Gourmet magazine in 1981 and ever since these muffins in all their variations have been known as morning glory muffins.

This is her recipe that I used here. 

My Nana was given a similar recipe ages ago and Mum used to make them for us so I associate these muffins with my family. They are best made fresh in the morning, pulled open still hot with a nice knife-full of butter slapped between the halves where it melts into the moist, fruit filled muffin. I have memories in my head of a tea towel lined wicker basket being filled with these. 

Like I said before, they are filled with carrots, apple, pineapple and dried fruit. I also used half wholemeal flour in this recipe too. They are good morning energy muffins, especially when sleep is in short supply and concentration needs to be high. You can wrap them up in glad wrap then pop them in the freezer for when you need them. Either pop them in the microwave to defrost, or let them defrost over the course of the morning so they are ready for morning tea. Alix said that frozen muffins are great because they hold their shape in her bag and don't get squashed. Bonus!

It's 11.47pm and the house smells of fresh muffins. Not the best smell to go to sleep to. Somewhat torturous. At least our dreams will be sweet.

Morning Glory Muffins

adapted from The Original Morning Glory Muffin recipe

Makes 24

Dry ingredients:

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 1/4 cup plain flour

1 1/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 large apple, grated

2 large carrots, grated

1/2 cup prunes, halved

1/2 cup dried apricots, halved

1/2 cup desiccated or threaded coconut

3/4 cup raisins

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained

Wet ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two muffin trays with paper cases (I use the large jaytee ones).

In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, sugar and cinnamon. Tip the bran that was too big to go through the sieve back into the bowl. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until evenly combined.

In a small separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. Do not over mix. 

Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases until they are about 4/5 full. They don't tend to rise much due to the density of the mixture so there is little risk of an epic overflow fail. 

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. I am still confused with my oven. Half the time it wants to be a fan bake oven and the other half of the time it is a normal bake oven. The original recipe says these need like half an hour to 35 minutes to cook but they only took 25 with me. So if you are using fan bake don't forget to drop the temperature by 20 degrees and just keep an eye on them. 

Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly before turning out onto a clean tea towel or cooling rack. 

They are best eaten warm with a good lashing of butter on them. Yum!

Enjoy!

Sophie x

(12.59 am)

Marshmallow Bubble Bars

Hello again,

In my baking craze today I decided to re live my childhood by making these marshmallow bubble bars. Now my Mum believed in having healthy lunch boxes, we never had chip packets or roll ups or dunk a roos (oh how I loved those though). A treat we got very infrequently were those LCM bars. My primary school friend and I used to think LCM stood for lemon covered monkeys. We were 7.

At birthday parties we made those chocolate crackles, you know rice bubbles, chocolate and kremelta served in wee cupcake cases? Nom. But nothing with marshmallows.

I stumbled across this recipe one day and I saved it to my reading list on my phone. I had a weird and sudden desire to make these so off to new world I went in search of marshmallows and ricies.

This recipe is super easy, it has three ingredients. Although I did add a bit of vanilla essence and some pink food colouring to make it yummier and pinker.


Marshmallow Bubble Bars
(makes a whole heap)

4 cups ricies
200g pink and white marshmallows
60g butter

A Swiss roll or brownie tin lined with baking paper.


In a saucepan on a medium heat, melt together the butter and marshmallows and stir until smooth. Be careful not to burn the bottom of the pan.

Pour the marshmallow and butter melt mixture into a large mixing bowl containing the ricies. Stir quickly until evenly combined.

Transfer the mixture into the lined baking tray. Wet your hands slightly and press the mixture down into an even slab. Sprinkle over some 100s and 1000s if you wish.

Leave to set in the fridge for an hour or so before slicing and devouring.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge (if it lasts that long to be stored).

You could add some mini m&ms to this. That would be nom.

I hope this brings back blissful childhood memories.

Enjoy :)

Sophie x

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins

Hello!

It is that beautiful time of year when exams and final assigments worth far too much of one's final grade are quick around the corner. Now I tend to avoid the library at all times during this season, unless it is to deliver friday bakery almond croissants to a stressed out Alix. The idea of rushing stampeding to the library to get a special seat or a seat at all stresses me out. I therefore spend my study time at home where I am only metres away from my beloved kettle and box of tea bags. But for those of you who camp out at that crazy central, malicious med or scary science library you will be in need of soul comforting and brain fuelling snacks to get you through.

Back home, my Mum makes my brother big batches of chocolate muffins for his school lunches (yes my brother is 18). She wraps them up individually in glad wrap and pops them in the freezer so they stay fresh. I decided to do the same with these banana cinnamon muffins for when Alix begins her month long disappearing act. 

This recipe is relatively low fat and low sugar (as far as muffins are concerned anyway). They have the goodness of bananas in them too. When I was making these I ran out of plain flour so I substituted in some wholemeal flour, so there is a wee bit of fibre in there too. You could probably increase the amount to around half if you wanted to. I think I added 100g or so. I also didn't feel like buying buttermilk for the sole purpose of making these muffins. As a substitute I used low fat vanilla yoghurt mixed with a bit of milk. This gives both the acidity and texture you need. You could even add nuts or chocolate chips if you wanted. These ones are topped with sugar and cinnamon which gives them that amazing crunch to the top.

This is inspiring me to do an exam muffin series, haha maybe i'll do some delicious bran and fruit muffins next. 

I got this recipe from my Hummingbird bakery cookbook, it has a whole muffin section so there will definitely be more muffin posts. 

Now the method in the book said to beat everything, beat everything quite a lot. Now I don't know about you but when I was little and my Mum taught me to make muffins she said you need to mix the liquids and the dries separately. Then when you add them together only stir with a spoon as much as you need for everything to be combined (ie no flour pockets). When you over mix the muffin mixture the gluten becomes over worked and air pockets form in the finished product. I followed my own muffin making instinct and went with what my Mummy told me and they turned out just fine.

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins

(makes around 20 medium sized muffins)

350g plain flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon plus extra to sprinkle

160g castor sugar plus extra to sprinkle

375ml buttermilk (or 275g plain or vanilla yoghurt + 100ml milk)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

70g unsalted butter

400g mashed banana

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees bake.

Sieve together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Give it a stir to mix it all up then make a well in the centre. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk (or yoghurt and milk), the melted butter, the vanilla and the mashed banana.

Pour this wet mixture into the well of the dry mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir the batter until evenly combined and all flour pockets have been incorporated. Do not over mix or use a hand beater.

Line muffin trays with paper cases and spoon fill them until 3/4 full (I like that overhanging muffin top bit that goes nice and crunchy). Mix together some castor sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed.

Wait a few minutes before eating them as I find the muffin tends to stick to the paper when they are too fresh out of the oven. 

Enjoy!

Sophie x

Snickerdoodles

Hi there!

This weekend I have been on my lonesome so I took to the kitchen and filled my days with trying out new types of cookies and biscuits.

To be honest I came home this evening feeling a bit useless at everything and so I sought therapy in the one thing I don't seem to suck at: baking.

Thank God for baking. Had I not possessed the ability to whip up half decent treats I probably would have sulked and moped on the couch all night watching gossip girl and eating a tonne of red liquorice. Then I would have felt bad because I am supposed to be on a diet. Then I probably would have gone on a guilt induced trip to the gym for the second time in a day.

 I was going to make oaty chocolate chip biscuits. But that would have involved going to the supermarket to buy chocolate (funnily enough I did end up at the supermarket to buy tuna where I bumped into Mel who I then followed to the library to see Bryn. Talk about a detour. Did I mention this was 10pm at night?)

Right where was I? Ah I opened my Hummingbird book to see if there was anything new and exciting to make when I stumbled across this snickerdoodle recipe.

I had heard of snickerdoodles before, from numerous American TV and movie references. I didn't actually have any idea what they were though.

Turns out they are a dense but fluffy vanilla biscuit with a hint of cinnamon, coated in a crust of more cinnamon and sugar to create a crunchy yet fluffy spicy biscuit. They are delicious.

When I looked at the recipe I had everything I needed already in my extensive baking cupboard. What is even better is that they only use 60g of butter, so they are sort of in the low fat department with only around 4g of butter per cookie (lets not get started on the sugar - lets assume you burn that off in an instant :)).

This recipe does call for cream of tartar, I know it is not something you use often but it is super cheap to buy and only use a couple of times. Cream of tartar, or potassium bitartrate acts as a stabilising agent and a crystal forming preventative agent. It also helps to activate baking soda in baking powder.


Right lets get onto the cookie making shall we?

Snickerdoodles
(from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days)
Makes 12-14

For the dough:

60g softened butter
160g caste
r sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
240g plain flour
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the coating:
1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon


Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and beat until the volume almost doubles.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar and cinnamon and add this to the egg mixture in around three lots, beating well after each addition. Mix well until the mixture becomes a thick dough.

Cover the bowl with glad wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.

While the dough rests, preheat the oven to 170 degrees bake (150 if on fan bake).

Prepare the coating by mixing the caster sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.

Once the dough is firm, roll into walnut sized balls then coat well with the cinnamon and sugar mix.

Place on a baking tray and press down slightly with the back of a spoon, just to flatten them into fat discs. Space the dough balls evenly with around 5cm between each ball.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the cookies are a light golden colour.

Allow to cool slightly before munching down on them :)

I hope you enjoy these :) they are really easy, pretty much fool proof and are a nice crispy change from the usual bickie :)

Enjoy!

TTFN!
Sophie x

Sophie Attempts to Make Macarons for the Fourth Time and Succeeds. Finally.

yes well that was a long title. Aptly named I do think.

During the mid year holidays I took the time to try and make macarons. However, with reluctance I admit I failed. A few times. They turned out flat. and brown. and stuck to the paper. It brought me great sadness. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. The online blogs talk about this mysterious macronage or whatever the only problem is that they do not show you what the mixture is supposed to look like. Very frustrating.

Mini macaron!!!

Then my prayers were answered. By Rosie. Rosie at work showed me this excellent visual aid as to how to make macarons. It was a simple recipe, no tricky ingredients, no rain dances and voodoo dolls required in the method. With faith, I gave the recipe a go and much to my delight, out of the oven came beautiful wee shiny, un-cracked domes of footed excellence.

excuse the dirty oven door

Ok I tested a few to make sure they came off ok. I ended up cooking them for a wee while longer.

Oh what a nice foot you have!

It is here where I shall share this link with you today. I feel like such a resource should be shared with the world.

These macarons are very easy to make however you will definitely need an electric mixer (hand or stand is fine) to do this. You have to make a very stiff meringue.

All you need is:
4 large egg whites
1/3 cup castor sugar
food colouring
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 cup ground almonds
Icing for the centres.

See SUPER easy! :)

So here is the link to HowtoCookThat's Easy French Macaron Recipe and video tutorial. It is well worth the visit.

So this isn't really a how to of my own, its more of a check this out kinda thing. But regardless, take my word for it, these work out fantastically!

Presents!

TTFN!!

(Here is my first attempt back in the holidays. uugh haha)

Turkish Delight

Hi there,

As you may recall my last post on Turkish delight flavoured cupcakes. I bought a nice big bottle of rose water especially for them. They turned out so wonderfully and the flavour was amazing that I wanted to use my rose water for more goodness. The obvious choice was to make actual Turkish delight this time.

The smell of rose water reminds me of my first year of uni where I organised out hall ball. The theme was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and the museum atrium was turned into the Ice Queen's kingdom. As those who are familiar with the book will know, it is here where the Ice Queen gave Edmund some Turkish delight. So in keeping with the theme of the ball, I ordered 20kg(!!!) of Turkish delight from the local Turkish kebab shop and with the help of a few friends we packaged it all up into tiny cellophane bags with pretty organza bows to place at everyones table setting. We spend a good three nights packaging the stuff up and at the end of each packing session we were covered head to toe in the corn flour-icing sugar mixture. Opening my bottle of rose water and taking a whiff brought me right back to those nights.

I wanted to make this the proper way, with corn flour instead of using gelatine as the gelling agent. It requires an electric beater and a candy thermometer and it helps if you have at least 3 hands. The recipe I found was off this website by Titli Nahaan; Titli's Busy Kitchen. She had a video tutorial which was really helpful as it allowed me to see the exact colour and consistency that my sugar syrup and corn flour gloop needed to be.

I think I needed to cook my starch a little longer has my finished product is very soft and sticky. It was a good first attempt though.

I am not going to even attempt to write down a method here, just use the link and watch her video. Its step by step and fool proof.

Here is what you will need for it:

800g white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

120g corn flour (I used maize cornflour)
2 cups cold water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Red/pink food colouring
1 tablespoon of rose water


The ingredients are really very simple. Use this tutorial here for excellent instructions :)

If this seems like too much effort and stickiness (trust me, things get very sticky!) then pop down to your local kebab shop or international isle and pick up a box of it. Nom nom nom. I think I might use some of the runty pieces (which there are lots of) and pop them into the inside of my next batch of Turkish delight cupcakes.

TTFN!