Chocolate and coconut squares

As soon as I saw these chocolate and coconut squares appear on Lynn's blog, Traditional Home Baking, (back in March) I immediately scribbled down the recipe to try.

Usually I'm not overly drawn to coconut, but every so often it really appeals to me. I liked the idea of it combined in a chunky, oaty traybake. I was also keen to try the chocolate topping which I've seen Lynn use before in other recipes on her blog. It sets firm but doesn't crack when you cut into it. I can confirm that it's a lovely topping, almost fudgey, and so quick to make as it is just melted chocolate mixed with some butter. One to use again!

For my topping I used dark chocolate as I like the contrast of a darker, rich chocolate against the sweeter base, but milk would be delicious too. I'm just really into dark chocolate at the moment.

The texture of the base was quite crumbly but full of buttery, oaty, coconut goodness. I'd describe it as a cross between a chunky, oaty biscuit and a flapjack. It's a comforting, easy bake to enjoy with a big mug of tea.

I can't believe I made these over two months ago, time is absolutely flying this year. I've come to the end of birthday season within my family so I can go back to baking whatever I fancy, although I have no idea what that might be. I think I need to have a rummage in the baking cupboard to see what's going out of date. That usually sparks some creativity!

rhubarb jam and vanilla muffins

I had quite a lot of rhubarb left over after making my almond and rhubarb cake so I thought I'd make some jam. I've only made jam once before and it didn't go well as it over set.

Yet again my inability to make jam struck again as my rhubarb jam over set, but somewhat confusingly my thermometer was nowhere near jam setting temperature. Eventually I took the jam off the heat as I knew it would have burned had I left it longer. The resulting jam is dense and sticky when the recipe said it should have a fairly loose consistency as it uses granulated sugar rather than preserving/jam sugar. I don't understand how I got this so wrong. Perhaps my jam thermometer is faulty?! Any insight gratefully received.

Anyway, the jam still tasted nice despite being solid, so it wasn't a complete write off. I read online that over set jam could be salvaged by heating it up with a small amount of water. I'm so glad I tried this! I've discovered that the reheated jam tastes amazing with plain yoghurt and berries.

Anyway, I digress. Basically I heated up enough jam to dollop teaspoonfuls of it in the middle of my muffin mixture before baking. The muffin recipe is the same as last time, but with a jammy centre instead of blueberries. I also sprinkled some porridge oats on top for a bit of texture and visual interest.

The muffins tasted lovely and more importantly I didn't drop the cake tin this time. If I don't end up eating all my reheated jam with plain yoghurt I think I'll bake these muffins again.

mini egg biscuits

Slow clap for me posting an Easter bake at the end of May. 👏

However the Mini Eggs can easily be swapped for other chocolate: chocolate chips, Smarties, M&Ms etc. Please don't dismiss these biscuits (or cookies, if that's what you prefer to call them) just because they're dressed for Easter.

I came across these biscuits through Nickki's blog (again!) I liked that they contained oats and were described as chunky and robust. After making my oat shorties I was still on an oat biscuit kick so this recipe very much appealed to me, although typically I only got around to baking two weeks after Easter. Better late than never. 

To be honest I'm impressed that I kept two bags of Cadbury's Mini Eggs on my kitchen counter for over two weeks without breaking into them. That's extreme self control.

These biscuits are indeed chunky and robust as Nicki describes, like a pimped up Hobnob. The recipe also produced a sizeable batch. I think I got 26 decent sized biscuits. The smell of oats, butter and vanilla from the oven was absolutely insane and I couldn't wait to eat one fresh from the oven. It certainly didn't disappoint.

I think my only alteration to these next time would be to slightly reduce the sugar amount as they seemed incredibly sweet. I don't know who I am these days as that previously would have been an unthinkable sentence to proclaim.

Saying that, they're pretty damn tasty as they are and I wouldn't hesitate to bake them again. Here's the link to the recipe if you fancy making them too.

Oat shorties

I've been on a biscuit kick over the last couple of months and realised that it has been absolutely years since I last made oat shorties. Do they look like the most exciting biscuits? No, but damn they are tasty. They're like a Hobnob-flapjack hybrid.

They smell amazing fresh from the oven too. Butter, golden syrup and oats. . . Mmmmmm.

I was going to add that these are made using store cupboard essentials, but then again perhaps lard isn't commonplace? I must admit I don't tend to have it lying around but it was definitely worth buying a block to make these biscuits. Now what to do with the rest of it, shortcrust pastry or more oat biscuits? Decisions decisions.

Oat Shortie Biscuits
A family recipe

50g (2oz) lard (such as Cookeen or Trex)
50g (2oz) margarine
100g (4oz) sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp boiling water
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) porridge oats

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a few baking sheets/trays with greaseproof paper.

In a small saucepan melt together the lard, margarine, sugar, syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Do not bring to the boil. Add the oats and flour and mix well. 

Take heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture, (or bigger if you want larger biscuits) shape into rough knobs  and place on the trays, leaving space for each one to spread. I think I made about 24 biscuits in total. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden.

Leave to firm up slightly on the trays before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

oat and raisin cookies

I was actually looking for a different recipe when I came across these from the first Hummingbird Bakery book and changed my mind. Everything about them appealed to me.

They were crisp around the edges with a thick, slightly chewy centre which is exactly what I want in a cookie, not to mention packed with juicy raisins and warming spices. 

The recipe didn't exactly specify how big to make the cookies or how to measure them out, so I just rolled smallish balls of the mixture and flattened them slightly on the tray. I think I got 36 or 38 in total so you could easily half the batch if you find that an excessive amount, although excessive is never a word I would associate with cookies/biscuits/cakes/cupcakes. I'm unashamedly greedy when it comes to baked goods.

The only other thing I noticed was that mine took an extra 5 minutes in the oven, but most things do as my oven is on the slow side, so just keep an eye on them. You'll know when they're ready when they start to colour slightly round the edges. Remember they'll firm up properly once they cool.

After a quick online search I noticed that Ros has made these before so if you fancy making them too (and you should!) you can find the recipe on her blog The More Than Occasional Baker.

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.

Orange and sultana traybake and melting moments

Earlier this week I made an orange and sultana traybake (surprise surprise Mary Berry) as there were oranges needing used and a pack of sultanas which were going out of date. I don't like seeing food going to waste, especially if it can be transformed into cake.

This is such an old fashioned traybake, there's no other way to describe it. It's the type of traybake you'd expect to find in an old Granny's cake tin. The orange icing glaze is definitely the finishing touch. I think this traybake tasted even better the next day.

Ooh don't you love a good icing dribbling down the edges photo? I certainly do.

I've made quite a few Mary Berry traybakes now but I think the lemon drizzle is still my favourite. I won't bother typing out this recipe as it follows much the same method as the lemon drizzle.

I also made some of Mary Berry's melting moments this week as I had egg yolks to use up from the cooked frosting on mum's birthday cake. They were so quick and easy to make and very moreish to eat. There has been a lot of people around the house recently and everybody enjoyed them.

It's funny how I've gone from baking practically no biscuits last year to baking so many this year (and we're only in February!) I'm planning to make some custard creams soon. I used to make them quite a lot but for some reason didn't bake them at all last year. I'm turning into a one woman biscuit factory. Has anyone else being going through baking phases lately?

Biscuits and bowls

I found four dainty Grindley Peach Petalware bowls in a charity shop for £3 recently. To say I was excited was an understatement. As much as I love all my green, blue and yellow utility china I don't have much pink. The only reason I didn't blog about them sooner was because I couldn't decide how to display them. After all, I'm not particularly sure what their function is. Mini dessert bowl perhaps? It was only when I had a sudden craving for biscuits on Thursday that I decided they should be biscuits bowls.

I made chocolate chip cookies/biscuits and more oaty biscuits. The latter went so hard this time that they could chip teeth! Despite this they were finished first. Perhaps people enjoyed the challenge of eating them?

I really enjoyed making biscuits for a change and not too many got stuck together, hurray!

The chocolate chip cookie recipe is from my Mary Berry Baking Bible (again!) but I'm starting to feel guilty about the amount of recipes I'm sharing from her book so I'm going to urge you all to buy it if you don't already own it. I cannot recommend it enough.

Raspberry and white chocolate blondies Take 2 and oaty biscuits

Determined to find the "perfect" blondie, I surfed the web for another recipe. This recipe from BBC Good Food popped up and although the reviews were quite hit and miss I gave it a go.

They may not be as photogenic as the last blondies, but flavour-wise I definitely preferred these. I loved the golden, crumbly crust and the melt-in-the-mouth almost fudgy inside with gooey chocolate chunks and juicy raspberries. I've talked you into making these haven't I? The only thing to note is that I didn't have the correct size tin so I had to use a slightly smaller one. I still put it in at the same temperature but covered the top of the tray with baking parchment for the last 10 minutes. I also had enough left over batter to fill 4 little bun cases.

I think browning the butter helped with the fudgy flavour, although it did cause me to have a near freak out as I thought I had burnt rather than browned it as there were loads of funny bits in it. I ended up melting more butter, which I didn't need in the end, so I decided to make oaty biscuits with it.

I had forgotten how tasty these syrupy oat biscuits were. We used to make these a lot with Mum when we were little as the recipe is very easy. It's the perfect type of homemade biscuit to have in the tin for when visitors come past. Unfortunately by the time I had finished making these it was late and I had lost all energy to take a good photograph. No attempt to hide the biscuits with the slightly burnt edges or remove the crumb in the foreground!

Oat Shortie Biscuits
Recipe from Mum's little baking book

50g (2oz) lard
50g (2oz) marg
100g (4oz) sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp boiling water
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) porrage oats

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Since I already had roughly 4oz of melted butter I didn't bother with the lard. I then added the sugar and stirred in the syrup, soda and boiling water. Do not bring to the boil. Add the oats and flour and mix well. Pack together in in teaspoonfuls (or bigger if you want larger biscuits) and place on the tray. I think I had around 8 on a tray, and made roughly 20 biscuits in total. I also added more syrup to the mixture as it wasn't sticking together very well. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.