Gingerbread Pudseys

It is Children in Need time, and today at school we held a cake sale to raise some money. I was determined to theme my baking, and what better way than this?
I used my gingerbread recipe, then used rolled white icing and icing pens to add the details. Simple, yet effective.

Seedy apple cookies

I have been merrily baking what I know my children will eat, and a lot of the time paying little attention to the nutritional qualities of these treats. I have decided that there are times when I need the full on sugar extravaganza - like a birthday cake, but I could also use baking as a sneaky way of getting more good food into my children and myself.

Emma is quite happy munching on nuts and seeds, but Charlotte does not. I was hoping that I could adapt a recipe to get seeds into Charlotte's diet as a starting point for my experiments. I based it on my apple and cinnamon cookie recipe, which I have also made as ginger and lemon cookies.

Ingredients

130g soya margarine
55g granulated sugar
45g soft light brown sugar
50g crushed digestive biscuits
100g plain flour
80g oats
50 g sunflower seeds (blitzed into small crumbs)
20g sesame seeds
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g dried apple, chopped roughly
1 large egg
1 tbsp agave syrup

Method

Cream together the margarine and sugars.
Add the egg and agave syrup and mix well.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, biscuit crumbs, oats, seeds, bicarb and cinnamon.
Add the dry mix to the wet, mix well then stir in the chopped apple.
Bake on a lined baking tray at 170c (fan) for 12 minutes.
Makes 24.

Biscuit cakes

After trying out the "graham cracker and chocolate chip muffin" recipe recently, I decided I would try to adapt my basic cupcake recipe to incorporate digestive biscuit crumbs and chocolate chips. Whilst the muffins were delicious, I was advised by one of my critics (mum) that they were a bit heavy and didn't need the crumble on top. It was my birthday yesterday and a group of us were going to the park for the afternoon, I needed to take some cakes along as the batch of cupcakes my mum had made were not going to be enough for everyone. I gazed around the kitchen, looking for inspiration and noticed the last few digestive biscuits loitering around the fruit bowl, and decided they needed using up, today was their day to shine...

Ingredients

2.5 oz self raising flour
2 oz digestive biscuit crumbs
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 oz soya margarine
4 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz dairy free "milk" chocolate chips
2 eggs

Method

Cream the margarine and sugar in a bowl.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add 1 egg, vanilla and a tbsp of the dry mix to the wet mix and stir well.
Repeat with the other egg and more of the dry mix.
Add the rest of the dry mix and the chocolate chips and stir.

This mix made 18 small cupcakes, which cooked at 180c for 13 minutes. They were very light and moist, so I think another time I would add the biscuit crumbs as extra to the 4.5oz flour instead of substituting 2 oz of the flour with biscuit crumbs and baking powder. The flavour was great though, so worth trying again to get the texture right.

Fig Rolls

My mum always used to buy us fig rolls when we were little, or that's how it seems to me now. I loved them, even though I didn't like fresh figs. My sister believes that dad told us we didn't like fresh figs so he didn't have to share the ones from his fig tree with us. Cynical? Possibly, but now I know how good home grown figs are, I am inclined to agree - I am very possessive of my fig tree.

Anyway, I digress. Fig rolls seemed like a great idea for a new bake, as dried figs are a good source of calcium and iron. If the girls like them I can feel a bit less guilty putting these in their lunch boxes (chocolate chip cookies don't have much goodness in them, methinks). I had a large number of egg yolks left over from my (appallingly bad) attempt at meringues today, so these were put to good use in the pastry.

Ingredients

250g plain flour

150g soya margarine

65g light brown soft sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

150g soft dried figs

A little lemon juice

Method

Rub the flour and margarine together to make crumbs, then stir in the sugar.

Mix the vanilla and egg yolks together, then add to the crumbs, mixing to make a soft dough.

Chill in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

Cut the hard stems off the figs and place in a saucepan with 100ml water.

Simmer until the figs have absorbed the water and softened, a good 10 minutes. Let cool.

Add a squeeze of lemon juice to the figs, then put them in the blender to make a thick paste.

Roll the chilled dough out into a long strip about 15cm wide, then split it into 2 strips with a sharp knife. Spread half of the fig paste on each strip and roll together to make a long sausage. Cut into about 12 biscuits and place on a lined baking tray. Cut 2 slits in the top of each biscuit with a sharp knife. Repeat with the other strip of pastry and paste. Bake at 190c for about 15 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

They tasted right, but the pastry was a little thick - I was expecting this, as it was very fragile and difficult to roll out. Not bad though.

Ginger and lemon cookies

I have been making apple, oat and cinnamon cookies for a while, and although they are delicious, I thought I might try a new twist on them today. We are going to see some friends tomorrow, and I thought a batch of cookies would be a nice gift for them. I decided to substitute the apple and cinnamon for ginger and lemon, and here is the recipe:

Ingredients

100g soya margarine
70g golden granulated sugar
50g light brown soft sugar
1 egg
140g plain flour
50g oats
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 pieces of ginger in syrup
1 lemon

Method

Cream the sugars and margarine together, then add the egg and mix well.
Add the flour, oats and bicarb and mix to form a soft dough.
Drain the ginger and chop it finely.
Use a sharp knife to carefully take the top layer of skin from the lemon, trying not to get too much of the white pith from underneath. Chop the pieces of skin up really small.
Add the ginger and lemon to the dough and mix well.
Dollop 24 blobs of the dough onto lined baking trays and cook for about 13 minutes at 180c.
Leave to cool slightly on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
When cool, sprinkle icing sugar over the biscuits.

Jubilee biscuits

Yesterday, I thought I'd make something quick to tide us over until the big cake making session on Monday. We will have our village tea party on Monday afternoon, so I need to provide something special for that. I wanted biscuits, but couldn't be bothered with the hassle of rolling out dough, so this recipe was perfect.

Ingredients

300g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
125g soya margarine
100g light brown soft sugar
80g dark brown soft sugar
50ml hot water
1 tbsp golden syrup

Juice of 1 lemon
Icing sugar

Method

Rub the flour, bicarb, ginger, mixed spice and margarine together to make crumbs.
Stir in the 2 sugars.
Melt the golden syrup into the boiling water and then stir this into the crumbs to make a soft dough.
Using a dessert spoon, dollop around 24 balls of dough onto lined baking sheets and flatten slightly with your fingers.
Bake at 180c for about 15 minutes, then leave on the trays to cool for a bit.
Mix the lemon juice and icing sugar together to make a thick paste.
Put the biscuits on a wire tray to finish cooling, then spread a layer of icing on top and finish with some sprinkles.

Peanut butter and chocolate cookies

I love peanut butter. The best use for peanut butter (crunchy, not the smooth stuff) is in a fluffernutter. Made with 2 slices of white toast instead of bread, it is my absolute favourite yummy treat. I am also partial to peanut butter cookies, but as the children don't like them, I don't make them too often.

Then, I had a breakthrough. Emma now likes peanut and honey based cereal, and so I have an excuse for trying a brand new peanut cookie recipe on the family. Introducing the peanut butter and chocolate chip dairy-free cookie - I think it needs a better name.


Ingredients

3 oz soya margarine
4 oz soft brown sugar
5 1/2 oz peanut butter
4 1/2 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg (I used a medium sized one)
6 oz dairy-free chocolate chips (I used 3 oz of dark and 3 oz of milk)

Method

Cream together the margarine and sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add the peanut butter and mix.
Add the flour and bicarb and mix to make a soft dough.
Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
You are supposed to put the dough for peanut butter cookies in the fridge for an hour to firm the dough and make it easier to use, but I am always in too much of a rush to bother. It does help the next stage if you do, though.
Take a tablespoon of mix at a time and place on a baking tray, then squash it down to a biscuit shape with a fork. I forgot to do this bit today, so I got mine out of the oven after a minute or so and squashed them - the chocolate was already melted and oozed all over the place, hence the finished biscuits having a mashed-up chocolatey top to them.
Cook at 180c for about 12 minutes, until they are browning around the edges.
Use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 18 large cookies.

On tasting them, I think that they needed a bit more sugar, and when I make them again (they are very good) I will use 5 oz of sugar. I love the crumbly texture you get from the peanut butter and the fact that these are a little less nutty than plain peanut butter ones. Conclusion - I am very pleased.

Dairy-free choc chip cookies

I love those big, chewy chocolate chip cookies, but  I can hardly stuff my face with something while my dairy-allergic 5 year old looks on with her mouth watering, can I? I looked into it and googled recipes which I tried out with some adaptations. I eventually created the following recipe, which is practically indistinguishable from the dairy-laden version. I just made some, so I thought I would share the recipe:

Ingredients


300g plain flour
Slightly heaped 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Good pinch of salt
170g Dairy free soya spread
220g dark brown soft sugar
80g white caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
330g  dairy-free choc chips (I use a mix of dark and "milk" choc chips)

Method

Cream together the sugars and soya spread.
Beat together the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and add to the sugar mix.
Add the flour, bicarb and salt and stir until well mixed.

Ready to go in the oven (half of the total number)

Finally add the choc chips and stir in.
Dollop blobs of mix onto baking trays covered with baking parchment, you need to space them out pretty well as they spread loads while they cook.
Cook for about 20 minutes in the oven at 170c.

Leave them to cool for a bit on the trays before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely, they will be very soft when they first come out of the oven but firm up as they cool. I defy you to leave them to fully cool before you try one. Mmmmmm.

Just out of the oven

You can swap the soya spread back for butter and the choc chips back for dairy ones if you don't need them to be dairy free.

One last thing, I read somewhere that you can freeze egg yolks for use later on. When I made the meringues the other day I did just that, unfortunately the one I tried to defrost to use today was a lumpy sludge and not useable, so maybe I did it wrong...

One happy little girl with her cookie