My blog has faded into the background of late, I mentioned it briefly in other recent posts so I’m not going to say any more about it here. Instead I’m just going to rave about cookies and how wonderful they are. I used to have a different go to cookie recipe, it’s on the blog and I’d still recommend it as a great one, but this one has taken its place. It’s an incredibly simple recipe that does require you to have some waiting time, and also has the added bonus of being completely vegan. It’s not asking you to make any awkward substitutes, and if you aren’t then you can stress less about the chocolate you’re putting in it. It just happens to be a very simple oil based cookie dough that doesn’t use butter or eggs. Chilling the dough is absolutely essential for the success of these cookies. A sprinkle of sea salt over each just before you bake them adds a pleasant salty burst, but if you don’t want it, it’s not needed. Read more
Cookies
Brown Butter Cookies
I’ve got an absolutely massive soft spot for cookies. You can probably tell from the number of cookie recipes I’ve done over the last few years since I started this blog. From your basic choc chip cookies through to caramel stuffed cookies or brownie crackle cookies. This does mean that I’m starting to reach a point where my core recipes are actually all fairly similar, but I just mix up the flavours and fillings. This one is slightly different though, and indulgent; Brown Butter Cookies. One of my favourite flavours of ice cream is London’s Chin Chin Lab’s ‘Burnt Butter Caramel’, which has its grounding in the same technique. Browning the butter gives it a more caramel-y edge, giving it hints of toffee. This makes it perfect to go with fillings like pecans, chocolate and salt.
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Earl Grey Sandwich Biscuits
It was biscuit week on the Great British Bake Off two weeks ago, so to keep up with the Bake Off Bake Along that can only mean one thing; a kitchen full of biscuits. I’ve actually not had much time to get this done. I’ve had an exceptionally busy few weeks, with important family commitments, going to the filming of Bake Off Extra Slice, watching Progress Wrestling and Alexandra Palace and planning, then going on, a last minute getaway to Madrid & Barcelona. This means that I was up early on a Tuesday morning piping buttercream onto biscuits in my pyjamas. It was all going well until I realised the fridge had been on a high setting and the buttercream was too hard to pipe, leading to a stress while I tried to juggle photographing food and getting ready to work. It may also mean that I have to skip bread week and jump straight to caramel week!
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Brownie Crackle Cookies (Snowball Cookies)
Brookie? Crownie? What’s the best abbreviation for brownie cookies? Is there one that doesn’t make them sound mega lame, because both of those options aren’t so good and I’ve had people saying them at me for the last week. Last year I was sent a recipe by my girlfriend which we both made about 3 times in the weeks running up to Christmas. The recipe easily makes about 50 cookies, doesn’t take all that long to put together and its icing sugar shell makes it a perfect fit for a Christmas treat. You roll them in icing sugar just before you bake them, which causes them to crack and gives a lightly dusted, snowball like shell. They’re pretty intense; gooey and chocolatey like a brownie but with a crunch of a cookie.
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Cranberry & Pistachio Biscuits
With Christmas just next week, I’m well underway with my Christmas baking and cooking. You can see my Christmas Pancakes here, and this recipe uses cranberries too. These actually took me longer to hunt down than I was expecting them to. I baked them just at the end of November and apparently that’s too early to bag yourself some cranberries? What the hell?! Do people not understand that some of us get festive with the food far too early? Pistachio & Cranberry biscuits are a perfect item if you’re looking for something relatively simple but tasty to take into work before the Christmas break.
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