Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

Kris and I often share stern words while shopping, more often than not this bickering occurs within the confines of the biscuit isle.  Biscuits are where Kris and I differ, wildly.  He's a chocolate covered, caramel filled kinda guy where I'm more of a simple lady favouring fruit and nuts.  Kris always wins this fight and I walk away defeated with a packet of toffee pops in my basket.  I could buy them both, but that means I'll eat them both and that's just naughty!

Recently I imposed a biscuit buying ban on our household, favouring to make my own and freeze the dough in portioned out pieces.  This means I always have freshly baked cookies on hand and they always get to be my choice of flavour.  Until Kris learns to make cookies, that's how things are going to stay ;)

Oatmeal and raisin are my absolute favorite.  I was never, ever allowed them in the house due to Kris' dried fruit repulsion.  That was until I made these babies and forced him to try one.  Now, oatmeal and raisin cookies are a firm favorite.

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

(makes 30 cookies)

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter, softened

250g light brown sugar

200g plain flour

2 large eggs

1/2tsp baking powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1tsp cinnamon

250g raisins

375g rolled oats

Method:

If baking straight away preheat the oven to 180C and line a cookie sheet with baking parchment.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Using a wooden spoon stir in the oats and raisins.

If you're like me, you can now roll the dough into walnut sized portions, place on a baking sheet and open freeze in your freezer till hard before transferring them into an airtight container or ziploc bag.   If choosing to bake right away chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling.  Place on the prepared baking sheet for 12 - 15 minutes depending on how gooey you like your cookies. If cooking from frozen add an extra five minutes to your cooking time.

Allow to cook on the cookie sheet for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling or an eager mouth to be devoured instantly!

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Chocolate Peanut Brownies

Brownies are one of those bakes I can whip up at a moments notice.  The ingredients are always to hand and they're just so flipping simple to throw together.  I've even got Kris in on the brownie making action, with just a swift text I can arrive home to the welcoming fug of brownies in the air.  It's gotten to the point that a simple brownie just doesn't do it for me any more, I need something special to really get my juices flowing.  I've tried everything but the kitchen sink stirred into that glossy, chocolatey batter but nothing quite beats these peanut butter brownies.  Especially since discovering Sainsburys have launched chocolate chip peanut butter!! This just got serious!

Not a fan of peanut butter, why not give Nutella a try in its place?  Or if you're feeling super naughty, try Marmite, just up the chocolate to 300g and lower the Marmite to 100g.  An acquired taste, some might say!

Chocolate Peanut Brownies

(cuts into 16 squares)

Ingredients

100g butter

200g plain chocolate

200g peanut butter

200g plain flour

200g light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C.  Butter and line a 20cm square baking tin with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.  Add peanut butter to the melted chocolate and stir till smooth.  Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl and add the chocolate mixture, stirring to combine.

Whisk the flour and baking powder together before adding to the brownie batter.  Fold in the flour mixture taking care not to over mix, this will cause the brownie to become tough and cakey.

Place in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.  Cut into bite sized pieces and dig in.

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Baked Eggs with Chorizo

The last week or so I've been trying to make a bit more of an effort with breakfast.  Normally I skip this meal all together favouring a cup of tea and a cookie from the freezer (more on that later).  This bad behavior often leads to the even worse behavior of me attacking the fridge come 11am.  Naughty I know!  In a bid to stop my mid morning snack attack I've started to force myself to take a proper breakfast and a way to make myself stick to this regime is to document some of the more tasty morsels on here.  Aren't you a lucky lot!

This morning saw the return of a delicious brunch idea I took from the increasingly twee Rachel Khoo and her Little Paris Kitchen.  Last week she whipped up a yummy looking meal of baked eggs in little tea cups.  Her version saw eggs pared with crème fraîche, nutmeg and dill garnished with lumpfish roe.  Not something my tender little tum could face at 9am so I took the basic premise and added one chopped tomato, sliced chorizo and some double cream.  The resulting dish was painfully delicious, I can see this becoming a staple!

Baked Eggs with Chorizo
(Serves one, easily doubled)

Ingredients:

2 large free range eggs

2tbsp double cream

30g sliced chorizo

1 medium tomato, de-seeded and diced

pinch of salt and black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and pop a small oven proof dish into a medium roasting pan.  A tapas style dish is the perfect size for this recipe.

Sprinkle the diced tomato over the bottom of your dish followed by the sliced chorizo.  Break your eggs, one at a time, into the dish being careful not to break the yolks.  Drizzle over your double cream and season to taste.

Place the roasting tray containing your eggy dish onto the middle shelf of your oven and using a kettle or jug fill the roasting tray with water until it comes half way up the side of your dish.

Bake for 15 minutes until the whites of your eggs are only just set.  Serve with hunks of sourdough bread slathered in butter.

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Banana & Chocolate French Toast

Every now and again Kris and I ditch the usual breakfast routine of toast and cereal and really push the boat out. Whether it be eggs florentine (my personal favorite), pancakes or huevos rancheros we're always excited to try new and exciting breakfast treats.  Upon browsing this months edition of BBC Good Food magazine Kris let out an almighty gasp before pointing excitedly at a recipe, that recipe was banana and chocolate french toast.  Much to his excitement, today was the day.

With the sudden appearance of glorious sunshine we decided to whip up this insanely decedent treat and take breakfast in our newly landscaped garden complete with pot of tea and the mornings newspapers.  We may not get weekends to relax but boy do we make up for it on a Tuesday!  

Banana and Chocolate French Toast

Ingredients:

1 large, ripe banana

75g plain chocolate

3 medium eggs

4 thick slices of crusty bread from a round loaf

1tbsp double cream

1tbsp maple syrup

1tsp vanilla extract

3tbsp sunflower oil

Method:

Heat the oil in a large frying pan.  Whisk together the eggs, cream, vanilla and maple syrup and set aside.

Mash the banana in a bowl before adding the chopped chocolate and stirring to combine.  Spread the chocolate banana mixture on two of the slices of bread and top with the other slices.  Dip the sandwiches into the egg mixture pressing down onto the bread to ensure it drinks the sweet liquid, turning over to coat both sides.  Place the eggy sandwiches into the heated frying pan and fry on each sides for around 2 minutes or until the chocolate starts to melt.

Cut each sandwich in half and serve with a dusting of icing sugar and more maple syrup.

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Baking Mad - Key Lime Pie

I'm sure you all ready know I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I have to admit I have a real weakness for super sweet fruity pies! If you were to ask me my top three favorite desserts I'd have to reply, with no hesitation, banoffee pie, lemon meringue pie and key lime pie.  I see any of these babies on a menu and I just have to have it, maybe even all three if I'm feeling saucy!  A few years ago, a few friends and I were planning a trip to Florida.  In the interest of fairness we created a list allowing each person to choose two things they really want to do while there.  As you can imagine there was a lot of "go to Harry Potter World", "ghost hunting in St Augustine Lighthouse" and "feed the gators", my choice was to eat a key lime pie in an awesome diner as close to the Florida Keys as we could possibly get.  I got my wish, and Miami, you gave me the best key lime pie of my life. Until now...

I was recently asked by the lovely team behind the sauciest baker in the land Eric Lanlards Baking Mad to try out one of the recipes from the show.  When I saw my beloved key lime pie on the list I knew I just had to accept.  A few days later a big box of ingredients arrived at my door, I kindly relieved my friendly postman of the heavy sugar laden package and headed to the kitchen, zester and juicer in sight.  Man alive is this a good key lime pie!  The crust is so delicate without being overly crumbly while the filling was so light it could have floated away in a light breeze.  I was in heaven!

Wanna try this superb pie out for yourself? Well set your Sky + box to stun and get recording the wonderful Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard every weekday from March 5th at 12.05pm.

Please excuse the dark images, the light had gone by the time the pie had finished chilling and the thought of leaving it alone in the fridge, overnight, simply did not register.
*rubs tummy*

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