Grown Up Cookies (including basic cookie recipe)

Sometimes inspiration strikes in the weirdest places. I found mine this week in a health food shop. I’d sauntered into Holland and Barrett looking for some quinoa flour as I’d seen it in a gluten free recipe. They didn’t have any but I saw some crystallised ginger. Now I’ve never eaten this but one of my friends loves it. In fact ginger is his favourite root. This little gem was gathered when we lived together at university, had clearly run out of conversation and had started on the ‘what’s your favourite …?' game. 

For some reason crystallised ginger has always struck me as a fairly grown up thing to like. Maybe because my friend looks fairly sensible and is now an Accountant. Maybe. Anyway, I picked the packet up and augmented it with a bag of broken brazil nuts (way cheaper than unbroken ones and as I’d probably be chopping them up it made sense). I knew I had chocolate at home but how to bring them all together?!  I was fairly busy at work so hadn’t given it much thought until I struck on one word – ‘COOKIES’! 

So what follows is a basic cookie recipe that you can either use immediately or store in the fridge and cut slices off as and when you need it. Then you just place your extra ingredients on top so that they squish into the cookies while they are in the oven. These cookies have a high butter content so are very crumbly and also tend to spread while baking so leave them space. I think that they are a more grown up type of baked good due to the more advanced flavours of ginger, dark chocolate and nuts. However Smarties, marshmallows and sprinkles would put an end to that.

Ingedients

250g butter (well worth softening it first but otherwise you could grate it to speed up the prep time)

150g granulated sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract (you could add spices for extra flavour)

1 large egg

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt (if not using salted butter)

Some chopped toppings – I used dark chocolate, brazil nuts and crystallised ginger 

1.    Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. This is very butter heavy I find it might take a bit longer than usual.

2.    Add the vanilla extract and egg, mixing until it’s combined.

3.    Add the flour and baking powder (along with salt if using) and mix until smooth.

4.    Now put the dough on a large piece of cling film and manipulate into a sausage of dough. I’m sure there is a great method for this but I just make sure I have a lot of cling film and a large, flat surface. It gets there somehow. Key is twisting the ends once it’s roughly 7cm in diameter as this helps get a good shape.

5.    Put the dough in the fridge for an hour or so, or pop in the freezer until you need it.

6.    When you are ready to bake them preheat the oven to 200°C/GM6.

7.    Cut 1cm slices from it and arrange them on a baking tray, allowing space for them to spread out.

8.    Sprinkle on your toppings at this stage. You could just have vanilla butter cookies but shoving extra things in is better! Any chocolate would work, also any chopped nuts. Just experiment with whatever you have hanging around.

9.    Bake for 8-10 minutes (I’d go 10 if the mixture was frozen). When done cool for a couple of minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. If you leave too long they’ll stick (although less of an issue if you’re using baking paper).

Blueberry and Ricotta Cake

Ode to an Air Conditioning Unit 

Tucked away

Out of the way

Hidden

The machine waits for use

 

Autumns cool

Winters cold rule

Spring

Summer but no heat wave 

 

Heat begins

Summer then wins

Hot

Time to get the machine 

 

Movement; light

Moved in plain sight

On

Working and whirring away 

 

Heat banished

Sauna vanished

Sleep

The machine performs well 

Ingredients

220g plain flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

135g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

300g ricotta

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g blueberries 

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C/GM4 and line a loaf tin. I have those pre-made up ones from Lakeland and they are such a time saver.

2.    Mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt together. Leave to one side as you don’t need it for a while.

3.    Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then mix the ricotta in. (In this weather softening butter is so quick as you just leave it out for 30 minutes. This means you spend less time make the cake as it gets fluffy really quickly).

4.    Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well, then add the vanilla. Scrap down the sides as you go so everything gets mixed in.

5.    Add the dry ingredients about a third at a time, mixing until just combined, and then fold in the blueberries.

6.    Put in the lined tin and bake for 1 hr to 1 hr 10 mins, turning the oven down to 170°C/GM3 after 30 mins. Check it’s cooked with a skewer and if it’s clean take out and cool.  

N.B. This does make a generous amount of batter and it doesn’t rise that much. I used my 9” x 5” loaf tin and it basically goes almost to the top. If you have a smaller tin then you could always put some of the batter into cupcake cases and put in for the first 30 minutes or so.

Banoffee Pie

Getting to the Central line is currently like descending into the underworld. You know as you make your way down the escalator that awaiting you is a platform where warm air being pushed out of the tunnel by the oncoming train is a welcome treat, before you cram on to a carriage of humidity and sweat. Someone has either pushed the window at the end up as the strong breeze it creates is bugging only them, or the window is fully open but the world’s tallest and broadest man is standing in front of it so nothing is getting through. Both of these have the same result in creating a desperately unpleasant atmosphere and drastically increasing the chances of someone fainting, disrupting the service and ensuring that everyone stays in the sweat box longer. 

Salvation is at hand though. As you get off the tube and start the gradual ascent to the outside world, oxygen starts to become more readily available creating a euphoric feeling. Notwithstanding the idiots who don’t know how to use the ticket machines properly, you are only seconds away from the actual outside world and, regardless of the heat there, it is nothing compared to the lair of Beelzebub you have recently exited. Sadly repeating this twice daily does somewhat put a dampener on the great weather but at least leads to the temperature outside feeling cool when compared to the horrors of the tube network. 

Hot weather and baking don’t really mix with me. My kitchen is small and manages to heat my flat up, counteracting the strategic window opening and blind positioning. Therefore this week I have made something that requires assembling rather than baking. Banoffee Pie is extremely wonderful and I have made it with a buttery biscuit base but you could make, or buy, a sweet pastry case to construct it in. It’s fairly quick to make and always looks impressive thanks to a sprinkling of chocolate on the top. Transporting in London can be an issue in hot weather and sadly a bag of frozen peas was sacrificed on the Central line to the almighty Hades to ensure the cream didn’t melt. 

Ingredients  

450g digestive biscuits (this is if you want sides, if not then 300g will do)

150g butter (or 100g if using 300g of biscuits)

2 x tins of Carnation Caramel (you could use one but I like a lot of caramel)

3 or 4 ripe bananas

600ml double cream (you could use less and use whipping but just embrace the double cream)

1 x Flake 

1.    Grease a spring form tin. I used a 23 inch one but it just means your pie is deeper if you use a smaller tin.

2.    Smash the digestive biscuits into crumbs by your preferred method. If you have a small child on hand then they can be tasked with this if you’re happy with mess. If not a food processor whizz or bunging into a plastic food bag and smashing to hell and back with a rolling pin will work.

3.    Melt the butter and add to the biscuit crumb. Mix well until it looks like damp sand and put into the tin. Smooth it on the bottom and up the sides with the back of a metal spoon to create your base. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes. You want to make sure that when you put the caramel on that it doesn’t rip up the base so the butter needs to set.

4.    Take the base out and empty the caramel on it. Spread out until even.

5.    Now do these bits just before you want to eat it as the bananas can go weird. Slice the bananas and scatter the slices over the top of the caramel.

6.    Whip the cream until stiff and smooth over the top of the banana, finishing off with smashed Flake. Once again a small child (or enthusiastic work colleague) can help with this.

7.    If you’ve put sides on the base then use a knife the prise it away from the side of the tin, take the sides of the tin off and serve.

You can of course make this in a tart dish or create individual portions with tea cups or glasses.

Gingerbread with Dominic

Spent today drinking wine and jumping on a trampoline with small children. Not the most sensible combination but lots of fun. We rounded off with decorating gingerbread men. I think we did well.

Leon's Cinnamon Scones

A holiday in the UK can be fraught with dangers. You run the very real risk of reenacting most of ‘Withnail and I’. The experience can find you pathetically complain that you have gone on holiday by mistake to anyone who will listen and then drinking so much of the local scrumpy that you insult the elderly population of wherever you are staying. Luckily my holiday in Wales wasn’t like that, and while we had one wash out afternoon, The Thew actually managed to gain the respect of the local population by drinking the local scrumpy three days in a row and not passing out. A strange bubble exists on holiday where 7.2% cider seems the norm. The only strange moment I had was when checking into one place I was greeted by a moving CCTV camera and disembodied voice in reception but after a while an actual person showed up so that was ok.  

Our last day of holiday was spent with our friends in Abergavenny where we were treated to glorious sunshine and amazing food. They have discovered a vineyard near them so Saturday was devoted to watching their three sons playing in a stream while we cooled our feet and drank local Welsh wine. I became quite adept at the ‘Rock Game’ which entailed me finding rocks in the stream and then passing them to their youngest son who proceeded to hurl them down a mini waterfall. I think that the aim to hit another rock without a big splash but to be honest I was just happy that I was seen to be performing my role well.  

Breakfast on Sunday consisted of cinnamon scones which were fabulous. Leon is something of a cook and he just knocked these up for us. Served hot smothered in butter is a great way to start a Sunday and a highly recommend it to one and all. In the tradition of all great recipes this one is written on a scrap of paper with the ink slightly blurred where water has dripped on it and no cooking instructions. Just that in itself should assure you of how great these are. 

Ingredients 

Scones

310g plain flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

250ml milk

30g butter, melted 

Filling/Topping

60-70g melted butter

85g dark brown sugar (keep the packet handy)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice 

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°C/GM5 and line a baking tray with baking paper (the butter and sugar go everywhere but we want to keep it as they make crunchy bits you can snack once all the scones are gone).

2.    Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together then add the butter and milk to make the dough. It will look very wet but start with a wooden spoon and then use your hands. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead to bring together. Add more flour as you knead if the dough is too wet but the kneading should make it less so.

3.    Roll the dough out into a rectangle. I had it about 1cm thick in the end but is doesn’t matter if it’s uneven. Go for a size just larger than A4 as a guide.

4.    Brush all over generously with the melted butter. Mix the sugar and spices together and scatter most of it over the dough. (I used all of it and forgot to leave some for the topping so just used more brown sugar, hence keeping the packet handy in case you do this too).

5.    Roll the dough up bringing the long side towards you and then slice into pieces. I got 15 out of mine but make sure they are about 3-4cm wide. Place upright, so the swirly middle bit isn’t top and bottom, brush with more butter and top with sugar/spice mix or just sugar.

6.     Bake for 20 minutes (although I think 15 minutes could do it as my sugar started to melt which Leon's didn't) cool very slightly then serve the Leon way.

 

N.B. These are best served hot but if you save some then heat for 15 seconds on high in a microwave.