Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies with Lemon Drizzle

More fruit in things. Carrying on from the Strawberry Drizzle cake I made last week I wanted to keep with the berry and summery bake theme going. I also didn’t want to do anything overly complex. I’ve been really busy on the nights so wanted something I could bake quickly one night, hence the Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies with a Lemon Drizzled Glaze.

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

I also wanted to make something relatively light that gave a bit of energy. At work we’ve set up a couple of exercise bikes on the balcony and as a company are aiming to cycle the length of the Tour De France in 10 days. We managed it in 6 but we’ve been continuing to cycle anyway. I personally put in a couple of short half hour shifts. The second being 18km in the 30 minutes. Which is a personal best and I’d like to think a signal of my continued improved fitness.

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Anyway, back to the cookies. I found them here. And completely agree that, while they are great on their own, the drizzle really does make them.

I’m also moving in the very near future. This may mean that my posts become slightly more sporadic, so apologies in advance.

Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies

Cookie endorsement:

Scott Malthouse, Senior PR Exec said: “These cookies are A-MAH-ZING.”
Puneet Mitra, Digital Marketing Exec said: “Best cookies you’ve ever made.”

 

5.0 from 1 reviews
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Serves: 12-16
Ingredients
  • 192g cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 225g unsalted butter, softened
  • 200glight brown sugar
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 255g old-fashioned oats
  • 100g blueberries
  • 128g powdered sugar
  • juice of one lemon
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C(160°C fan assisted) and line a cookie tray (I only have a standard baking tray).
  2. Quickly whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
  3. Cream together both sugars and the butter. Do this on a medium speed for about 3 minutes until it’s light and fluffy.
  4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add in the vanilla.
  5. Stir in the flour mix, then the oats. Finally mix in the blueberries with a spatula, carefully so that they don’t burst.
  6. Using two heaped tablespoons per cookie, roll them into a ball and space evenly on the prepared tray. Spaced about 2 inches apart.
  7. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until they are golden brown.
  8. Allow them to cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.
  9. Once they have cooled. Combine the lemon and icing sugar until it’s a paste.
  10. Drizzle over the top and set aside until it hardens.
 

 

Adventuring

This summer needs more adventures.

Ben More - Mull

I mean, it’s competing with last summer, which was pretty rad. It involved a number of weekends away. Several hikes, lots of baking, weekend and day trips. There was one month where I did Devon > Scotland > Cornwall. With only brief stops in Leeds and York in the middle. Those breaks were great.

Ardmore Point - Mull

I mean this summer I’ve got Mull to look forward to with the Cornwall lot at the start of August, the morning after my sister’s wedding, but other than that I feel like I have been doing a lot more drinking a lot more stationary this year. This is a campaign to get me up a few more mountains and to a few more remote locations, with campfires and maybe tents.

Hiro - Cornwall

Unfortunately I am already running out of weekends though. Why does this always seem to happen? Or at least if I’m not busy, everyone else appears to be. Too much to do. Such little time and such little money.

My mountain climb at the start of the summer fell through and while I’ve been looking to re-arrange it, it appears to be fairly fruitless. I’m more than tempted to just jump on a train to the middle of nowhere this weekend and see where I end up. It’s fairly easy to do out of Leeds with some of the smaller towns/villages on a couple of lines out of Leeds.

Strawberry Drizzle Cake

SUMMER. STRAWBERRIES. FOOD. BAKING. EXCITED NOISES. Yeah, I wanted to do something a little different to last summer’s Strawberry and Cream cupcakes but still strawberry based. So I spent some time looking around this here internet thing (i.e. I did a few googles) and all I was coming across was “such and such topped with strawberries and cream” or “tort with strawberries” and the like. It wasn’t really what I wanted. Until I came across a recipe on the waitrose website, that’s right, waitrose. It of course is “use all of our own brand things to make this cake”, so I went to Tesco, or Asda, or whichever supermarket it was and got all the ingredients cheaper. I’m poor, sorry. Anyway, the recipe is for a Strawberry Drizzle cake. Something, which even when I had decided to make it I was still unsure would work. Strawberry drizzle to me, sounded like it would either be glorious or a bit mushy and odd.

Strawberry Drizzle Cake 08

Fortunately it was glorious.

Strawberry Drizzle Cake 01

 

The cake is wonderfully light, so perfect for the summer, doesn’t use too much sugar and is loaded with strawberries. So it’s healthy, right? (I say this as I am half way through eating the second one in two weeks). Pressing the juice out of the strawberries may make the cake look like it’s soggy at first impression but it’s far from it. Staying moist for a couple of days (it does need to be fridged though, and yeah I know you shouldn’t fridge cake).

Strawberry Drizzle Cake 05

Strawberry Drizzle Cake 06
 

Also, I booked my flights to Chicago today to go to RiotFest in Chicago in September. Can’t wait. Can anyone recommend some stuff to do while I’m there? My current plans involve getting fat(ter), drinking a lot and maybe a tattoo.

Strawberry Drizzle Cake
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 100g Salted Butter, at room temperature
  • 200g Golden Granulated Sugar, plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling
  • 1 large Egg
  • 120ml Milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 200g Self-raising Flour
  • 400g Strawberries, halved
  • 50g icing sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC(160ºC fan oven) and grease and line a 23cm cake tin.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
  3. Beat in the egg and the milk. Beating until well combined. Add the vanilla then the flour, beating until well combined and there are no lumps.
  4. Spoon into the prepared tin, shaking slightly to make sure it’s even.
  5. Set 6 of the strawberries aside (these will be used for their juices later) and position the remaining halves, cut side down, on top of the cake. Sprinkle some golden granulated sugar on top of the strawberries afterwards.
  6. Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.
  7. Meanwhile, cover the strawberries you set aside with 1tbps of the icing sugar, and leave for around 15 minutes.
  8. Press this through a fine sieve into a bowl to get the juices out. Combine 1tbps of the juices with the remaining icing sugar, whisking until they are combined and leave to thicken.
  9. Once the cake has been removed, allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack.
  10. Drizzle the juice mix over the top of the cake.

Strawberry Drizzle Cake 02
 


Strawberry Drizzle Cake 03

 

Review: The Dapper Duke – Gentlemen’s Summer Beard Oil

I’ve recently been in the market for some new Beard Oil. My old one, Mr Natty’s Beard Elixir, leaked out in my bag (ironically breaking my breadtrimmer) a while ago and I’ve been putting off getting something new mainly due to cost. I thought it was about time I bit the bullet, especially with my beard getting a little longer and slightly more unruly recently. I turned to the good people of twitter/my fellow bloggers/my bearded pals and got inundated with suggestions. From Bedfordshire beard co, the Brighton Beard Company and Bear Face to a couple of US based ones like Bath Sabbath and Jack Earl Co.
The Dapper Duke

Wooden Comb

I eventually opted for something from The Dapper Duke, in part due to them offering fairly cheap wooden combs (and I’d been in the market for a new one for ages). For a 10ml bottle of oil it was £7.50 which compares very well with the competition with prices ranging from about £6 to £18. Wooden combs are great for combing beards and combing through oils. As well as for standard hair (my current comb sucks). They have a selection of oils on offer under various categories from Sweet to Citrus and finally “Masculine”. I went for one from the Masculine section as I’m not too keen on overly sweet scents on myself. The oil is their Gentlemen’s Summer Oil which uses orange essential oil with jojoba, argan and almond for a wonderfully fragranced oil. Once combed through it helps shape the beard wonderfully, also helping to soften it up. I’m looking forward to an extended test to see just how well it helps soften the beard. The packaging is also great, with the oil coming in a little pouch with a Dapper Duke plack. A great touch. It also took less than a day between ordering and arriving, and for only £3.50 delivery I really can’t complain. Excellent service and an excellent product. Now I just need to find myself a good barber… Suggestions welcome (Leeds & London).

Beard Oil

Also, it was payday and the sales happened. So I bought things I shouldn’t have.

Can anyone recommend a different oil or a barber? Suggestions in the comments below!