Friday's 30 second dance party

So the oven is broken, which, when you are trying to set up a baking business is a slight inconvenience. It broke last Saturday so we have been 6 days without an oven. 6 days. However, today we popped to John Lewis and purchased a new one! We've gone for a Neff (Neff the Chef as the lady told us) she said it was the one they use on bake off. I was sold immediately.

The lack of oven-ness in my life has however led me to branch out to try some new, non-bake recipes which has been rather enjoyable, particularly the batch I put together this evening. I'm going to experiment with trying a more plant based diet. Low energy levels and an onset of insomnia have led me to look into changing my diet sightly. Thus the biscuits I put together this evening are raw and refined sugar free (I didn't have gluten free oats so there's still some of the old gluten in there but that can be changed easily). I'll hopefully post the recipe tomorrow when I've given them to the taste tester (Rich) and seen if there are any bits I can add to make them more spangly. One recipe contains nature's beautiful gems that are pomegranates though so I already think they're pretty spangly.

For now, I'll leave you with a nearly refined free and raw truffle (it contains 75% dark chocolate which prevents it from being so but you could eliminate this of course). A healthier take on a Terrys Chocolate orange I like to think, but equally as tasty and full of bits which have some actual benefits. Here goes.

Lizzie's Chocolate Orange Truffles (title is a work in progress)

1/2 cup cashews
1/2cup jumbo oats
2 tbsp honey
Zest of half an orange
Juice of half an orange
100g 75%/80% dark chocolate

Pop the cashews, oats, honey, zest and juice into a blender and blend until combined and a slightly sticky mixture has formed. If it's too wet or too sticky to handle, just throw in a little more oats or cashews, whichever you would prefer more of.

Roll the mixture into truffle sized balls and pop in the fridge for an hour or until firm.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof glass bowl on a hob.

Dip the truffles into the chocolate so they are completely coated then place on a plate covered in baking paper.

Pop back into the fridge for another hour or so until completely set. (Store in the fridge)

Enjoy with a cheeky glass of red wine and some R Kelly Ignition for todays Friday 30 second dance party (it is a Friday after all).

Have the most delicious Friday.

Lizzie x

Tea at Three

Winter has arrived and Christmas is most definitely around the corner. The temperature has dropped, Band Aid are playing on the radio again, choirs and brass bands are bringing Cambridge town centre to life and the shops are looking particularly spangly and sparkly at the moment.

One of my most favourite parts of this time of year is being cosy with friends and family, meeting in warm pubs, toasting by the raging fire; watching strictly and the xfactor with friends, passing comments and judgements like you would and indeed could have done it more impressively and delving into those treats which really only come about this time of year and that is why they are so much more special and delicious.

One of my most favourite tastes and smells of this side of winter is mulled wine, in any form. For me, it holds everything Christmas is and I am not ashamed to say I have already been delving into it for some of my baking - although I am yet to indulge in a glass. That is on the list of things to do this evening.

Earlier this year Rich's mum very kindly gave us a jar of her homemade plum and mulled wine and jam and whilst spreading it very generously over my toast one morning, decided it might work extremely well as a biscuit filler. It does.

One way I have incorporated it into my baking is through these rather cheeky jammie dodgers. These are rich and indulgent crumbly bites of goodness. Glorious. I'm working on how to try and get the jam a little more stretchy - like the jam in a actual jammie dodger so will let you know when that one is worked out.  Enough chat.

Mulled Wine Jammie Dodgers

I used the Martha Stewart recipe for Linzer cookies as she uses hazelnuts which really does add that extra Christmas zing to them.

• 1 cup unblanched hazelnuts
• 227g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 2/3 cup mulled wine jam

Pre heat the oven to 190c and pop in the hazelnuts for about 10 minutes, until toasted. Once out of the oven, allow to cool  and then rub in a towel to remove as much of the skin as you can. Throw these into the blender and blend away for a couple of minutes, until they are finely ground.

Using your electric mixer and its paddle attachement, beat sugar and butter together on a medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat on a low speed until all combined and smooth then beat in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the ground hazelnuts, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and sifted flour. Add these to the wet mixture and beat on a low speed until just combined. 

Split the dough in two and flatten into discs. Wrap the discs in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for at least an hour until firm or overnight (the flavours have time to come together). 

Pre heat the oven to 180c and on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/4" thick and cut out your chosen shapes using a cookie cutter. Using a smaller cutter, cut out the middle of half of the cookies.

Bake until the edges are golden (around 12 - 16 minutes) turning half way through. Pop them onto a cooling rack until completely cooled. 

Once completely cooled, spread a teaspoon of jam on the bottom layer of the biscuit and then put the top on. Once all have been made, sift a bit of icing sugar on top to give that extra bit of something. 

Enjoy these as part of a tea at three pick me up with a cup of darjeeling tea (it's lightness is a good contrast) and a little listen to some Billie Holiday and Guilty.

Lizzie x

Winter is coming...

There are few more satisfying things than snuggling up with a warm bowl of delicious porridge on a clear, cold morning. So that's just what I did. Lovingly wrapping my oats up in some almond milk, chopped banana, dried cranberries, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon to make it that extra bit wintry. Sublime.

Is this whole winter, cuddly cosy thing affecting you at the moment? It's really taking over here! As I mentioned in the last post, the winter incense is already burning and the heating is keeping me toasty. All this is the required inspiration for some winter style cookies so that's exactly what I whipped up yesterday afternoon and whipped up is just what you can do with these cheeky chappies, they only take about 8 minutes to cook and require no refrigeration time! Perfect for those impulse cookie cravings.

These are however more than just butter, sugar and flour. The butter for a start is melted and beaten in with the egg which is what I think makes them that little bit more melty in the mouth. Then you've also got the ground almonds, oats, dried cranberries and white chocolate. All mixed together to make a soft, slightly chewy, wintry tasting dollop of goodness.

The recipe was very kindly donated to me by my mother in law who swore by them as some excellent winter treats to whip up for those last minute people popping in for a cuppa.

Ingredients:

150g butter melted
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g ground almonds
50g porridge oats
50g dried cranberries
50g soft brown sugar
50g caster sugar
100g white chocolate chunks (go for good quality white chocolate, it really does make a difference)
1 large egg or 2 small egg yolks

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180c
1. Melt the butter and set aside to cool
2. Sieve the flour and bicarbonate soda in a bowl
3. Stir in the cranberries, sugar, almonds, oats and chocolate
4. Whisk together the cooled butter and egg and then stir into the dry ingredients

5. Form walnut sized balls and place them 2 inches apart on a lined baking tray. Flatten them down with a teaspoon

6. Bake for 8 minutes. Leave to cool slightly on the tray and then transfer to a cooling rack. They will be squidgy when they come out but that's good - they'll continue to cook. If they come out too hard, they'll be like rocks when they've completely cooled.

Leave to cool for a bit  (but if a little bit accidentally breaks off and pops into your mouth, that's absolutely fine) then sit down and enjoy with a cup of tea and if you fancy a bit of a weep, the new John Lewis advert or the original of Real Love by John Lennon. What are your winter cookie go to's?

Lizzie x

Looking for - the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe

I absolutely adore this time of year. The steady build up to Christmas is happening, the temperature is dropping, fires are burning, the heating is coming on and the winter incense is wafting around the flat. Beautiful. It also makes for the most delicious, if slightly chilly morning run - but that's when they're best.

I'm currently in the process of trying to set up a market stall at Cambridge Market but as ever there is a great deal of paperwork and council regulations to go through before anything can move forward. This waiting period however has presented me with the time to trial and error some recipes which is always an enjoyable experience and one I have very much stuck my wooden spoon into.

When setting up a cookie/biscuit stall the most obvious recipe I thought I needed to tackle was of course the ever faithful Chocolate chip Cookie recipe. I use ever faithful here with a serious pinch of salt (something I must use less of in my next batch) as actually I think the Chocolate Chip Cookie is one of the trickiest to perfect, and perfect quite honestly is what they need to be (chewy middle with a lovely crispy shell. Yum).

So I set about investigating this famous, comforting and well documented baked good and there is an awful lot of information about this little guy out there, ridiculous amounts quite frankly. Almost every recipe I came across claimed to be 'The best ever!' and all were fairly varying. However, I came across a link from the New York Times  and their quest to find the perfect choc chip cookie recipe so decided to put this one into the mix. I also came across Handle the Heats ultimate guide to the perfect choc chip cookie where she carried out a series of tests to see what actually goes into making the perfect cookie. After reading these and a silly amount of others, I set to work.

At this moment in time, I have only trialled three of the recipes at various stages in their cookie cycle. I used the NY times and also borrowed the idea from Handle the Heat to trial the Toll House recipe with a couple of changes. I made up the batches as required. For the NY times I didn't change anything at all, what I did instead was experiment with the timing. I put the first batch in immediately after whipping it up and pressed them very flat down. Two huge errors just there. Flattening them down only made them very crispy (I'm after a crunchy exterior with a chewy interior). They were also very buttery. I then left the batter for 6 hours -a slightly better taste but not brilliant. I had also left a batch in the fridge for 36 hours as recommended for a rich, butterscotch taste.

The first batch attempts - oh dear.

I took the batter out, let it sit for about 20 minutes and then rolled it up into golf sized balls. Placed these on the baking tray and pressed down very gently (I would do it even more gently next time), popped them in the oven for 15 mins so they came out golden but soft (they still cook for a while after they've been brought out so in fact I would only put them in for 10 mins next time). The taste is far superior. It has a caramely, butterschotchy after taste and when mixed with the saltyness is pure indulgence. The only thing I didn't do was add enough chocolate. I thought I would try grating it in this time but it really just doesn't have the same effect as munching into a large bit of gooey goodness.  I still think this batch could be chewier and so I wouldn't press at all next time, instead I would leave them in a golf ball state (the only thing I would worry about here is them becoming too cakey so will try and let you know).

The Toll House I am really struggling with. I trialled two recipes here, the control (the recipe as it came) and one replacing the plain flour with bread flour. The first batch (the one that went straight in) produced slightly chewier cookies from the bread flour. However, the 36 hour batch just didn't quite carry it off. Both recipes produced very flat, sprawling cookies. The taste was alright after the 36 hours but I'm not convinced.

A rather unconvincing batch

I am still very much in the exploration stage with this rascals. I'm going to try the adaptations to the NY times recipe and I've found another one I want to give a whirl. If anyone has any suggestions on how to achieve the perfect crunchy yet chewy chocolate chip cookie please send them this way! I'm off to further research!

Have a tremendous night of fireworks, wooly hats, mulled wine and bonfires!

Lizzie x