custard and white chocolate biscuits

I've been on a bit of a biscuit theme this week. First the muesli ones and now these custard and white chocolate beauties which I photographed outside in the sunshine.

I've been meaning to bake these for a few months after spotting them on Lucy's blog, and they certainly didn't disappoint. The flavour from the custard powder really comes through and gives the biscuits a sandy, shortbread texture.

I also love how aromatic vanilla is in a biscuit, it makes a great waft when you open the biscuit tin :)

My only gripe is that I would probably want more white chocolate chunks. I actually reduced the sugar amount by 25g, after reading below the recipe that some people found them almost too sweet, so I certainly think more chocolate could be added without making them sickly.

Any excuse for more white chocolate really :)

I got my happy feet

I recently bought two new pairs of shiny shoes and felt the urge to share them. It's hard not to smile at my feet at the moment. 

So shiny and red. They make me feel like I should be invited to a birthday party.

Nothing is happier looking than bright yellow shoes with an oversized patent bow paired with dinosaur socks. I'm mostly just wearing these around the house at the moment as I'm keeping them for a wedding in August (to be paired with a blue polka dot dress).

Yes I'm wearing socks in June. I have the coldest feet in the world.

And I love socks.

muesli cookies

There was a disaster yesterday.

The biscuit jar was EMPTY. Not even a rich tea biscuit.

Nothing.

Since nobody was going to venture out to restock our digestive/hobnob/custard cream supply any time soon, I took it upon myself to bake something that evening.

After a quick rummage around the baking cupboard I discovered some dried cranberries and apricots which needed using up, perfect for this muesli cookie recipe I found in my Lakeland book.

I took these out the oven a bit earlier than the recipe stated as they looked golden and I wasn't sure how much they would harden once cool. In hindsight I should have left them in the full allocated time as they're quite chewy, almost like a syrupy flapjack, which is incredibly tasty but I suppose not what they're intended to be.

I'll probably make more in the next couple of days to use up the rest of the cranberries and apricots as I don't think these are going to last long in the biscuit jar!

Crunchy (or not so crunchy in my case) muesli cookies

Recipe from Cupcakes and Cookies by Lakeland, slightly altered to suit what I had

90g rolled oats

150g plain flour

220g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

50g flaked almonds

50g chopped dried apricots

50g dried cranberries

125g butter (I think I used 100g unsalted, 25g salted)

2 tbsp golden syrup (go on, lick the spoon, I did)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp boiling water

Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas 3 and grease and line oven sheets with baking parchment. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, nuts and fruit. In a saucepan, melt the butter and syrup over a low heat, then add the combined bicarb. soda and boiled water. Mix then add to the dry ingredients. Combine everything together and roll pieces of the mixture into (roughly) tablespoon sized balls. I think the recipe was a bit optimistic claiming the dough makes 36 biscuits, I got around 20 and I personally wouldn't have wanted them any smaller. Space about 5cm apart on the baking trays and flatten slightly with your hand before baking in the oven for roughly 20 minutes.  Cool on trays.

squidgy brownies

I tend to bake a lot with fruit, mostly because I love the flavour of fruity bakes and like to pretend it's part of my five-a-day, but every so often I have the urge to bake something unashamedly sweet and down right unhealthy. Enter the brownie.

These are quite possibly the squidgiest, fudgiest brownies I have ever made. They almost had to be peeled off the baking parchment. However they still had that all important crisp, flaky brownie surface. I also chucked some extra chunks of milk chocolate to the batter so there would be little pockets of gooey chocolate with each bite.

For a change I photographed these at the picnic bench in the garden as it was so warm and sunny. Yeah, sunshine happens occasionally, and what's better than enjoying a brownie with a cuppa in the sunshine?

The recipe is ever so slightly adapted from one I bookmarked on Nelly's Cupcakes last year, originally a Nigella Lawson recipe.

Just a reminder to everybody that google reader is shutting down in the next couple of weeks so you'll either need to bookmark your favourite blogs or swap to a new blog reading platform such as Bloglovin', Feedly or Hello Cotton. Personally I use Bloglovin' and I find it easy enough to navigate. My Bloglovin' button can be found on my sidebar if you want to click and follow :)

Here's what I did:

200g unsalted butter

180g Cadburys Bourneville chocolate
20g milk chocolate (40% cocoa solids)

2 duck eggs

260g golden caster sugar

115g plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

75g milk chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line a 20 x 30cm baking tray. Melt together the butter and chocolate, either in short bursts in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a small pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile whisk together the eggs and sugar, then add the cooled butter/chocolate mixture. Add sifted flour, salt, vanilla extract and chunks of milk chocolate and mix everything together. Spread the mixture onto the prepared tray (I also had enough to fill 4 cupcake cases) and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the surface is lighter in colour and slightly cracking. Leave to cool completely in the tray (if you can resist!) before cutting into slices.

flower power

Although I was delighted with the cake stand I found on my Glasgow holiday a couple of weeks ago, my favourite find is this little Taunton Vale ceramic canister.

Even better, it matches the big canister my mum got for my 19th birthday. I used to keep caster sugar in it for baking in my uni flat. As it was one of my favourite kitchen pieces I refused to put it into storage when I moved home from uni, so it now sits on my bookcrockery case in my bedroom.

I love the shape and bold floral design. I've always been a bit of a sucker for 1960s kitchenalia (I'm guessing these are 1960s, although it's possible they could be 1970s). When I do get a house, it's going to be a weird mash up of classy art deco, pastel 1950s and funky 1960s designs. 

These are also the last of the spring flowers (narcissus?) from our garden. It was difficult finding enough to fill a vase as most of them looked sad and battered. Poor things, they're not really built for the windy Scottish climate.