Cheese scones

No I haven't lost my mind - this really is a savoury bake! I could eat cheese scones all day every day, I kid you not. These rarely (who am I kidding, they never) make it into anyone else's tummies.

Ingredients:-

225g self raising flour

Pinch salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 tsp baking powder

55g butter

100g cheddar cheese

80-90 ml milk, plus extra for glazing

Extra cheese for topping the scones (and lots of it!)

Method:-

Preheat oven with the baking tray inside, lined with baking paper, to 180 degrees.

In a medium to large bowl sift together the flour, salt, cayenne pepper and baking powder.

Cut the butter into cubes, place in the bowl and then using a mixer with a paddle attachment, slowly mix until the flour and butter resemble something akin to breadcrumbs. You can of course rub the mixture together with your fingers if you would prefer but I am a slightly lazy baker and a mixer wins every time!

Sprinkle the grated cheese into the breadcrumb mixture and rub in until the cheese is evenly distributed. 

With the mixer still running on the slowest setting, add the milk little by little until the dough comes together. You're looking for a soft firm dough that's not too wet. You may not need all of the milk to get the desired consistency here.

Lightly flour a surface tip the dough out onto it. Now I am not a fan of a rolling pin, so using the palms of my hands I press the dough out until it is approximately 3cm thick and then using a medium sized cutter, press out the rounds, reshape and keep cutting out scones until I've used all of the dough.

Brush the tops of the scones with the extra milk and sprinkle a little lot of cheese on the top of each scone before popping in the oven.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown, cheese deliciously melted and yummy!

Rolo Cookies

You might not love anyone enough to give them your last rolo, but a rolo cookie?! Hell yes! These are a take on my chocolate chip cookie recipe but with a caramely rolo centre. Enjoy!

Ingredients:-
150g salted butter, softened
80g light brown muscovado sugar
80g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
225g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
200g plain chocolate chip or chunk
1 pack of Rolos

Method:-
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Add the butter and both sugars to a bowl and beat until creamy. I use a standalone mixer for this and beat, using the paddle attachment, for a good 2-3 minutes.

Next add in the vanilla extract and egg, and mix until combined.

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the mixture and beat until the mixture magically becomes cookie dough. Add the chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Using a trusty ice cream scoop, dollop mounds of the mixture, spaced well apart on the baking trays, then push a Rolo into the center of each mound of cookie dough.

Bake in the oven for 8–10 mins until golden brown on the edges.

Leave on the trays for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Raspberry Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

This recipe is one of many variations on my basic brownie. You can find my first post on this recipe here, but I will go over it again in this post just to make things super simple.

There are so many options with brownies, I doubt that I could find every single possible ingredient combination in my lifetime! Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad challenge, maybe I'll try!

Ingredients:-

85g unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing baking tin

40g cornflour

30g unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

340g dark chocolate (broken into squares)

170g caster sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 medium eggs 

For raspberry cream cheese swirl:-

4 tablespoons of cream cheese

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Handful of fresh raspberries

Method:-

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 

Lightly butter a 20cm by 30cm rectangular baking tin and line with grease-proof paper, leaving a 1 inch overhang on all sides. 

Combine the cornflour, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. 

On the hob, gently melt the chocolate and butter*. You can use a double boiler for this if you'd prefer but I like to live life on the edge, rebel, and just bung (technical term there!) it in and go for it. Just be careful not to overheat the chocolate, gentle is the key word here. Otherwise the chocolate could go grainy and that's not what we're going for.

*note - I use a medium sized pan for this. The reason being, that I then use the same pan to mix in all of the remaining ingredients. One pot = minimal washing up - yay! 

When the chocolate and butter have melted, remove pan from the heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. 

Making sure that the mixture has cooled ever so slightly (so as not to cook the eggs) stir in eggs, one at a time, until combined. 

Add cornflour, cocoa, cinnamon and salt mixture and stir until the luscious brownie batter is smooth and begins to pull away from sides, about 2 minutes, but if your arm can't take it, don't worry. 

Pour the batter into your pre-greased and lined brownie tin and smooth over the top with a spatula. 

Combine in a small bowl the cream cheese and vanilla extract and stir to loosen up the mixture so it's a blobby consistency. Then using a teaspoon, blob into the brownie mixture and then swirl with a sharp knife. Dot the raspberries over the top, either haphazardly or neatly - whichever floats your boat!

Then  bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30-35 minutes, rotating the tin halfway through. 

Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Using paper overhang, lift brownie out of pan and cut into 16 squares and enjoy!

Will report back with further brownie combos - don't worry! ;)

Oreo Fudge

I don't know what's could be more exciting than homemade fudge...answers on a postcard please! I think it's a bit like brownies / blondies for me in that as soon as you've got your basic recipe down, you can add any combination of ingredients to the mix and it completely changes it up.

There's pretty much no skill required for making fudge. I was apprehensive but you literally stir the mix until it becomes a fudgey consistency and it's done! The only thing that put me off slightly here was the amount of white chocolate that this recipe required. It's A LOT. But don't let that put you off because it's such a fun (and yummy) thing to make.

Ingredients:-

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

510g white chocolate 

1 pack of Oreos

Method:-

I recommend using a disposable traybake tin (like here) because I won't lie to you, fudge is an absolute pain to cut and this way you can absolutely murder the tray and feel no remorse.

Melt the white chocolate with the sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed medium sized saucepan over medium to low heat, until it reaches that fudgey consistency I talked about.

Stir in the chopped Oreo cookies, saving a few pieces to press into the top.

Pour mixture into your handy dandy throw-away tin and quickly spread fudge evenly with a spatula. 

Press extra chopped Oreo cookies on top. You can either leave to set at room temperature or if you're super impatient like me, pop it in the fridge to set.

This is when the tin comes into it's own. Using scissors, cut the down into each corner of the tin to flap the sides down and then using a sharp knife, cut into squares. You can peel the fudge away from the tin also if it's being a little uncooperative.

I prefer to store this in an airtight tin in the fridge but you can keep it at room temperature if you'd prefer. I would like to tell you how long it keeps for, but lets face it, it wont be around for long!

Flapjacks

I'm not sure I could be friends with someone who didn't like a flapjack. I mean, really...what's not to like about these deliciously sweet, chewy oaty bars of goodness?! I also love it when, as soon as you offer a dieter a flapjack, they suddenly jump at the chance, because they're healthy right! ;)

Ingredients:-
250g porridge oats
125g unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
3 tbsps Golden Syrup
Optional:
Handful of raisins

Method:-

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Lightly butter a 20cm by 30cm rectangular baking tin and line with grease-proof paper, leaving a 1 inch overhang on all sides, for ease of transferring the flapjacks to a board to cut when baked.

Using a heavy bottomed medium sized pan, melt the butter, sugar and Golden Syrup until there are no sugar granules.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the oats, stirring to coat them in the buttery sugary mixture. At this point I will then add some raisins if I want to, or you could use any other dried fruit, apricots, cherries, blueberries. I tend to just eyeball it, but I would say probably a good handful.

Tip the mixture into your pre lined tin and press it down firmly with the back of a spatula or wooden spoon, This really helps the flapjacks to stick together.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool slightly in the tin, then using a sharp knife, mark out where you will cut the flapjacks and then leave them to cool completely before cutting.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea!

Chai Spiced Carrot Cake

I feel the need to premise this post with a caveat - this is not my recipe! It's one of Jamie Oliver's gems from a recent issue of Jamie magazine. The reason I'm featuring it here (well one of the reasons!), is that it tastes AMAZING, so I just had to share it with you all. Secondly... my Instagram post of my cake was featured in the most recent issue of Jamie magazine, cue major excitement and flinging said magazine in the face of anyone and everyone to show them! Eeeeee!

You can find the link to the original recipe here. You can follow my Instagram account here. 

Ingredients:-

250ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

4 large carrots

1 large lemon

100g currants or sultanas

100g pecans

280g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground anise

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 tablespoons candied ginger in syrup

1 black tea bag (I used Tea Pigs Chai tea)

2 large free-range eggs

200g caster sugar

200g light brown sugar

30g flaked coconut

For the cream cheese buttercream:-

200g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

200g cream cheese

15g icing sugar

Method:-

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease a 30 x 20cm traybake tin with veg oil and line with baking paper. 

Peel and grate the carrots (praise the lord for food processors with grater attachments!) and lemon zest into a large bowl, mix in the currants or sultanas, then roughly chop and add the pecans, then set aside. 

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, ½ a teaspoon of sea salt, and the spices, Dice and add the ginger, then add the leaves from the tea bag and mix well. 

Add the eggs, both sugars and the veg oil to a mixing jug, then pour the mixture over the carrots, mixing to combine. Add the dry ingredients and mix briefly or until just combined. 

Pour the batter into your pan and bake in the oven for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the buttercream, place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy, about 5 minutes. 

Add the cream cheese and beat until just combined. Next, add the icing sugar and beat again until smooth (don’t over-mix it as your icing will be runny.) Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, then spoon the buttercream over the cake and spread out evenly. 

Place the coconut into a dry frying pan over a medium heat and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted, tossing occasionally. Scatter it over the iced cake, then serve.

This makes a really delicious, moist cake. Even people who were not massive carrot cake lovers said that they enjoyed this. The spices really bring everything together, and it just - works!