Lemon Curd Crumble Bars

These deliciously zingy, crumbly bars are to die for. Bright and tangy lemon curd sandwiched between a buttery biscuit base and a nutty, oaty crumble layer. Simply brew up a pot of Earl Grey and enjoy.

Cake pit stops are vital for any day out, don't you agree?  For me, it simply isn't a successful outing if we haven't stopped for a spot of tea and cake.  A few weeks ago, Kris and I were on one of our many antique hunting trips (I saw we, I mean me while he follows me through dusty piles of vintage kitchenware, grumbling under his breath) when we passed the cutest little cake shop.  Obviously it's against the law to be British and ignore tea and cake so in we went.  Instantly my eyes went straight to a pile of lemon shortbread crumble bars. Not other cake mattered to me in that instance, this was the sweet treat for me. So I ordered myself a bar and a cup of Earl Grey (Kris had something mile high and covered with chocolate, standard) and settled down by the window to enjoy my spoils.  Needless to say, dear reader, it was crap! It tasted like it had been sat out since the dawn of time, cardboard would have packed a better punch than this sorry affair.  Is there anything more disappointing?   I left, deflated and unsatisfied, with a solemn vow never to return and to make my own version at home. A version that is not, indeed, crap.  Well, I think I nailed it!

A super buttery shortbread base, laced with lemon zest topped with creamy lemon curd before an oaty, crumble layer is added. Screw your cardboard cakes, this sucker has lemony goodness in every mouthful.

I just love these bars, not only are they super simple to make but I always seem to have the ingredients to hand. I mean, if you don't constantly have a jar of lemon curd in your cupboard, can we even be friends?

Lemon Curd Crumble Bars
(adapted from Waitrose Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 170g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 285g plain flour
• 75g caster sugar
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1 large, free range egg yolk
• 1 lemon zested
• 50g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 20g demerera sugar
• 25g rolled oats
• 20g flaked almonds
• 20g walnuts, roughly chopped
• 325g jar of best quality lemon curd

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C, grease and line a 22cm square tin with baking parchment. In a food processor, pulse together the butter and flour until soft crumbs form. Stir in the caster sugar and salt, then remove 1 /3 of the mixture and set aside in a bowl.
2. Add the baking powder, egg yolk and lemon zest to the remaining mixture in the food processor and continue to pulse until combined. Tip into the baking tin and press down to form an even layer. Bake for 15 minutes, then allow to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, add the demerara sugar, oats and nuts to the reserved mixture with the butter and add 1tbsp water. Using your fingers rub the butter into the dry mixture until it's all nice and chunky.
4. Spread the lemon curd over the biscuit base, then top with the crumble mixture. Bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove and allow to cool completely in the tin.
5. Remove from the tin and slice into bars. 

SHARE:

Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies use ground pecans and coconut in the flour mixture and the darkest chocolate to give them a deep, sophisticated taste.  This is a cookie for the adults, no kids allowed. Unless they've been really good...

I wonder how many chocolate chip cookie recipes I can possibly fit on this blog?  The funny thing is, I'm not anywhere near done yet.  As long as different variations on this ultimate classic exist, I'll keep baking 'em.  It's hard work, but someone has to do it.

I'm definitely team nut (and team raisin, I'll fight anyone who disagrees) when it comes to cookies, I'll always choose a pecan studded number over a plain chocolate chip.  Nuts add a wonderful texture to a cookie, or muffin, or any sweet treat if you ask me.  It works out perfectly in my house as Kris is an avid nut (and raisin) hater, so I know that if I want a treat and not have to worry about it vanishing, I can always whip up a big batch of these pecan chocolate chip cookies.

At least that's what I thought. I made a batch of these cookies, smugly knowing they were just for me, when I noticed Kris loitering around the kitchen. He was a little too interested in what was going on for my liking. 'They're full of nuts, you won't like them!' I shouted, brandishing a wooden spoon protectively.  He simply shrugged and popped a full cookie in his mouth.  Over the next few days I'd say he ate around 80% of the batch, I still haven't decided whether it was a failure or a success.  I'd failed in making something just for me but succeeded in making something so delicious that even a nut hater would renounce his stance and devour the lot.  

Nope, I'm still thinking....

So, are you a fan of nuts in cookies, and more importantly, will you be giving these babies a go to test your alliance?   Give them a go; you never know, they might change your mind.

Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 75g desiccated coconut
• 150g pecans
• 125g plain flour
• 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp salt
• 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 80g light brown sugar
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 large, free range egg
• 2tbsp black treacle
• 200g best quality dark chocolate, chopped

Cooking Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line two cookie sheets with baking parchment. Spread the coconut and pecans onto each of the lined cookie sheets and bake for 8 minutes until lightly toasted and fragrant. Allow to cool.
2. Take 50g of the toasted pecan nuts and transfer them to a food processor and pulse until they form fine crumbs. Chop the remaining pecans roughly and set aside.
3. Stir the toasted coconut, pecan crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer mix together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, around 5 minutes. Beat in the egg followed by the black treacle then dump the flour mixture in and mix slowly until just combined. Stir through the chocolate and chopped pecans then cover the bowl with cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour or up to overnight.
4. When you're ready to bake the cookies scoop out heaped tablespoons of the dough and place on the prepared baking sheets from toasting the nuts, giving the cookies a little room to spread. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, allow to cool slightly on the baking tray before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling.

SHARE:

Blueberry and White Chocolate Cake

If there was ever a cake made for breakfast time, this is it.  Filled to bursting with white chocolate chips and juicy blueberries you'll be hard pressed to find a more decident breakfast treat.

The soured cream in this cake creates a moistness like no other. I ate this cake over the space of a week and it stayed so squishy and moist.  I have to admit, this is one of my very favorite loaf cakes I've ever made. I can't wait to try it out with forraged blackberries over the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did. In fact, I'm off to make another one for the weekend. Happy Baking.

Blueberry White Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 2 large, free range eggs
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 150ml soured cream
• 220g blueberries
• 150g white chocolate chips


• For the frosting :
• 180g full fat cream cheese
• 100g icing sugar

Cooking Directions:

1. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 175°C.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer down to low and add the eggs in one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Add half of the flour, the baking powder and half of the soured cream and beat to combine. Add the remaining flour and soured cream and mix again. Stir through half of the blueberries and all of the white chocolate chips, pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 1hr - 1hr 15minutes.
4. Allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before transfering the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling.
5. When the cake is cooled, make the frosting. Whip the cream cheese and icing sugar together until creamy and then spread over the top of the cake. Scatter with the remaining blueberries and serve.

SHARE:

Strawberry Prosecco Cupcakes

My love of prosecco is well documented on this blog, there really is nothing better than popping that cork and settling down for a good gossip with the girls.  Last week we went extra with our flutes, topping them with a plump, red strawberry before adding a dash of wild strawberry liquor. Needless to say it was utterly delicious, which got me thinking about cupcakes.  How can I incorporate this delicious flavour into a little bun, thus these strawberry prosecco cupcakes were born.

The best thing about these cupcakes is the surprise on peoples faces when they bite through the sponge to discover a full, juicy strawberry hiding inside.  What a treat.

With Mothers Day on the horizon I can imagine many a deserving mother who would be delighted with the gift of these babies.  Serve them up alongside a chilled glass of prosecco for the queen of Mothers Day treats, you'll even get bonus points for making them with your own hands.  No store bought cakes for you, oh no!

Strawberry Prosecco Cupcakes

Ingredients

• For the cake :
• 175g (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 175g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 175g (1 1/2 cups) self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3tbsp whole milk
• 12 strawberries


• For the frosting :
• 125g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 300g (2 1/2 cups) icing sugar
• 100ml prosecco
• popping candy and straws to decorate

Cooking Directions

1. Heat your oven to 170C and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with liners. Set aside. 
2. In the the bowl of an electric mixer whip the butter and sugar together till light and creamy, around 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time mixing between each addition. Add half the flour and mix, add the milk followed by the rest of the flour and the baking powder. Mix till combined the mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Using an ice cream scoop fill each cupcake liner to 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes until risen and springy when touched. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing to a baking rack to finish cooling.
4. To make the frosting first mix the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and soft. Add the icing sugar and 3/4 of the prosecco. Turn the mixer on low and gradually increase the speed. Whip for 5 minutes, if the frosting looks too stiff add a touch more prosecco until you reach a nice piping consistency.
5. One the cupcakes have cooled slightly brush the tops with the remaining prosecco then take a small knife and hollow out a cone in the center of each cupcake, pop a strawberry in each hole. Fill a piping bag, fitted with an open star nozzle, with the prosecco frosting and pipe a cute swirl on each cake. Sprinkle with the popping candy and pop a little straw in the top.

SHARE:

Oreo Swirl Marshmallows

Marshmallows have a reputation for being difficult litte buggers to make.  The squidgy, flumptious nature of them just screams "don't bother, buy a bag instead". I'm here to tell you to ignore that voice, just push it down. Instead, gather together a few ingredients and prepare to be plesently surprised about how easy it actually is.

The best thing about making marshmallows is the fact your stand mixer does the majority of the work for you, all you've got to do is boil up some sugar.  This is not a job for little hands, so if you're making these with kids make sure they stand well back while you boss this bit.

If you're not feeling the oreo bit, or just can't face washing the food processor, you can just leave this bit out and make plain vanilla marshmallows.  Just as tasty but nowhere near as fun, if you ask me.

Oreo Swirl Marshmallows

Ingredients:

• For the Oreo swirl 
• 1 pack of Oreo cookies 154g
• 50g coconut oil


• For the marshmallows 
• 3 envelopes of gelatin
• 100ml cold water
• 400g caster sugar
• 250g corn syrup (found in the American section)
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 250g icing sugar for dusting and coating

Cooking Directions:

1. For the Oreo swirl put the Oreos and coconut oil into a blender and blend for around 3 minutes until it turns into a wet paste. Set aside.
2. For the marshmallows grease a 9x13" tin with cake release or a generous amount of oil. If using oil line the tin with cling film, leaving an overhang around the edges.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer pour in the water and add the gelatin, let stand for 10 minutes until thick. In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan combine 50ml cold water with the sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a rolling boil and continue to boil on a high heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.
4. Turn the mixer to high and while it's whipping carefully pour the hot sugar mixture into the bowl in a slow, steady stream. Continue mixing on a high speed for 13 minutes until thick and sticky. Add in the vanilla extract, mix to combine. With a rubber spatular marble the Oreo paste through the marshmallow and transfer into the prepared pan. Smooth the top down as best you can and allow to set overnight.
5. When set remove the marshmallow from the pan, spray a sharp knife with oil and cut into small squares. Toss the cut marshmallows in the icing sugar and enjoy. Marshmallows will last a few weeks in an airtight container.

SHARE:

Candy Apple Bar

When I was a little girl one of my favorite autumnal treats was a candy apple.  Not those lurid red specimens that would pull your teeth right out of your head, but the chocolate covered apples, dipped in hundreds and thousands. Yum!  Nowadays I'm not so fussed by apples, as my gran would say 'the juice isn't worth the squeeze'.  I'd never pick up an apple and just bite straight in, but hand me a bowl of ready sliced fruit and I'll happily munch away till the cows come home.  

If, like me, you can't be bothered with a full apple but still fancy a nice nostalgic treat, then this candy apple bar is for you.  It's also the perfect way to sneek an extra portion of fruit into fussy kids, we'll just ignore all the chocolate and caramel for now, shall we!

Simply chop up a few apples, skewer them on a stick and away you go.  If you're planning on taking your candy apple bar on the road, picnic time ahoy, simply dip your sliced apples in ginger beer.  The citric acid slows the browning process thus keeping your apples pretty for longer.

The fun thing about this is it's fully customisable.  I used a mixture of chocolate sauce and caramel sauce for dipping but melted white chocolate would work beautifully too.  For the topping station I used mini chocolate beans, mini marshmallows, chopped hazelnuts, crushed oreos, crushed digestives and toffee chunks.  The combinations are endless, coconut would be a wonderful addition and popping candy would go down an absolute storm with the little ones.

Such a fun little idea, if you give it a try please do tag me on Instagram at Katie_Petlamb. I'd love to see your creations.

SHARE:

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat Recipe

Earlier this year Kris and I jetted off to New York for the first time,  to say I fell in love with the city is an understatement.  It broke my heart to leave and return to rainy old England, vowing to return as soon as possible.  One of the best things about NY, as I'm sure most of you that have been will agree, is the eating.  Oh man, I could have ate twelve meals a day and not got sick. The list of foodie places to visit was as long as my arm but there was one place that really stood out to me, Levain Bakery.  Just search the hashtag on Instagram and you'll know exactly why I was so desperate to taste their sweet delights.

Let me just tell you, we visited the city in the middle of January.  Cold doesn't even come into it, still we queued for over and hour just so I could get my hungry little mitts on one of those immense cookies, I mean just look at that bad boy.  I was in fat lass heaven.

If I have but one goal in my life, it is to recreate that cookie.  I will not stop until it is perfected and I'll take you guys along every step of the way.

For attempt number one, this isn't bad.  It has the height and the density of the Levain cookie but the texture just wasn't right.  The craggy, crispy top wasn't there either.  Maybe that's my fault, I forgot what I was doing and rolled the dough into smooth balls rather than leaving them Au-natural.  What was I thinking?!

Still, it's a pretty kick ass soft batch cookie.  Soft and full of tooth sticking goodness I doubt I'd find a person able to resist one warm from the oven.  

I'll continue my journey to recreate greatness but right now I'm pretty happy munching my way through a plate of these monsters.  If you need me, I'll be the one with melted chocolate all over her mouth.

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 360g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp baking soda
• 1tsp fine salt
• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g light brown sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs large eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 350g dark chocolate chips

Cooking Directions

1. Line two large baking trays with baking parchment and set aside. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt and set aside. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, around five minutes. Once creamed together add the vanilla then the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Slowly add the flour, scoop by scoop until all has been incorporated. Stir through the chocolate chips and chill the dough for half an hour.
3. Scoop out 12 large mounds of dough, trying to keep them roughly round, but don't smooth them out. You want them nice and craggy. Place the mounds on your prepared sheets around 2" apart. Bake for 20 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown. Take care not to over-bake as they will loose their squidgy texture.
4. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack then dig in. Make sure you serve these cookies warm, there's nothing like it!!

SHARE:

Dirty Blondies

We've all heard about slutty brownies by now, haven't we?  If not, you must have been living under a rock with your fingers in your ears, singing.  For you rock dwellers, a slutty brownie is a layer of chocolate chip cookie dough, a layer of chocolate oreos topped with a layer of brownie batter.  Filthy right?  Well what about the blondes, they can be just as naughty.  Enter the Dirty Blondie!!

These trampy blighters are just as bad as their slutty cousin, maybe even a touch naughtier!  Here we have a layer of white chocolate chip cookie dough, vanilla oreos followed by a layer of white chocolate blondie.  So sweet, so creamy, so dirty!

Look at those cheeky little vanilla oreos, peeking out of their cookie dough curtain giving you a saucy wink.  How can you resist such sweet temptation. 

Dirty Blondies

Ingredients:

For the cookie dough :
• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 250g light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 350g self raising flour
• 150g white chocolate chips
• 18 vanilla oreos
  For the blondie layer :
• 125g unsalted butter
• 225g white chocolate, broken into chunks
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 150g plain flour

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 170C and prepare a 20x30 brownie tray, or use a disposable tray.
2. For the cookie dough layer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, around five minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition followed by the vanilla extract. Add the flour and mix until just combined, stir through the chocolate chips. Press the dough into your prepared pan in an even layer. Place your oreos in rows of three on top of the cookie dough. Set aside while you make the blondie layer.
   
3. In a large saucepan over a low heat melt the butter and chocolate together. Add the sugar and stir together. Crack the eggs into a large jug and whisk up, slowly pour the eggs into the chocolate mixing as you go until combined. Add the flour and stir until just combined. Pour the blondie mixture over the cookie dough and oreos making sure everything is covered but don't over fill the tray. Bake for 35 minutes, until just set.
   
4. Allow to cool in the fridge over night before cutting into cute little squares and enjoy.

SHARE: