Tag: Cookies – homemade are always the best!

Home-made Ginger Cookies

Baking a batch or two of cookies was something our mothers and grandmothers thought nothing of. They didn’t mind creaming the butter and sugar by hand, or for the lucky ones, in the mixer. Today we avoid such recipes if we can.

(Up until last year I didn’t own a cake mixer and my ‘tools of trade’ were a glass bowl and a wooden spoon by mum made me on her wood-turning lathe! )

This recipe is made in a pot – it will take longer to cool the mix than it will to make them! Best  news is that you will just have a pot and a wooden spoon to wash up afterwards 🙂

My best tip for making your cookies this method is to make sure the butter & sugar mix is cool enough not to cook the eggs!

Preheat the oven to 180°c – and prepare two baking trays by lining them with baking paper.

Ingredients:

  • 175 g butter
  • 1/4 cup golden syrup
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  •  2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • Extra sugar

Melt butter and golden syrup in a large pot. Remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar.

Add the egg and beat well with a wooden spoon. Sift the dry ingredients into the pot and mix everything together well.

Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls, and then roll in the extra sugar.

Place on a prepared baking tray and flatten gently with a fork.

Bake at 180°c for 12 minutes or until golden.

Ginger cookies (1).png
Home-made ginger cookies – perfect for dunking in your coffee!

(If you have crystallised ginger in your pantry try chopping 50 g finely and adding to the mix – for those ginger lovers out there this will be a lovely treat!)

Happy baking xx

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Apricot, Almond and Chocolate Cookies

Freshly baked cookies are a household favourite and my ‘chief tester’ can’t often resist the cookie dough before it is baked!

These cookies are lovely, with the crunch of the almonds and the chewiness of the apricots – of course the addition of rolled oats make them slightly healthy (well almost!)

Ingredients

  • 110 g butter
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup golden syrup
  • 50 g thinly sliced apricotsApricot cookies (1).png
  • 50 g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 50 g almonds, chopped
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 100 g dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 180°c.

Put the butter, sugar & golden syrup in a small pot and stir over a medium heat to dissolve the sugar. Cool.

In another bowl, toss the apricots, chocolate, almonds, flour, salt and oats.

Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and stir to combine.

Using a tablespoon, measure out the mix, rolling into a ball – place on a lined baking tray 3cm apart and flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden. Leave on the tray to cool before transferring to a rack.

Coat the base of the cookies with the melted chocolate, or dip one edge in the  melted chocolate (looks a bit messy but the kids will love the chocolate edge) and leave to set.

As I have said before there is nothing nicer than a freshly baked cookie with your weekend cup of coffee – find a sunny spot (behind glass at this time of  year!) , grab your favourite magazine and put your feet up! You deserve it 🙂

Happy baking xx

 

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CHOCOLATE & HAZELNUT COOKIES

I haven’t baked for a little while now, and today seemed like a good day for it. I find that unless I am ‘in the mood’ my baking can be a disaster! you know what I mean? Cakes that don’t rise properly, or rise on one side only!, or I forget to put the timer on for the 2nd batch of cookies and the smell of them burning alerts me to this fact 🙂

After a quick lunch, I turned the oven on, and got started on a batch of cookies, and a new recipe combining chocolate and nuts!

This new recipe is good with either hazelnut’s or almonds – just use whatever you have in the pantry. (I used hazelnuts today)

C & H Cookies.png
Homemade cookies are so much nicer than store bought if you have a spare 30 minutes to bake them!

Ingredients

  • 230g softened butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup condensed milk
  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 cup chocolate bits
  • 1/2 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts or almonds

Preheat the oven to 180°c. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and sugar until ‘creamed’ – (with brown sugar & butter this is more a light tan cream!).

Add the condensed milk and beat well. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Roll tablespoons of mixture into approximately 24 balls – arrange on the trays and flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for 12-15 minutes

These cookies are not too sweet (according to the chief taster!) which makes them a good addition to your cookie recipes. Variety is the spice of life they say!

Happy baking xx

 

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Vanilla Cookies – straight from the Edmonds Cookery Book

I was in the mood to bake – but didn’t have a lot of time so a couple of batches of biscuits seemed like a good idea. It really is quick to bake biscuits and who doesn’t love a homemade biscuit with a cup of tea or coffee?

First up the family favourite Chocolate Chip cookies. Usually I use a cookie dough scoop however mine has broken – 1 tablespoon of mix rolled and then flattened with a fork and voila! 🙂 each cookie looks slightly different but thats baking isn’t it? Not perfect but still yummy. While they were baking I mixed up the next batch.

I grabbed my Edmonds Cookery Book and headed for the Vanilla Biscuit recipe. As you can see from the picture this recipe has been one of my go-to’s ever since I a) got the book and b) started baking.

Ingredients:

  • 125g butterVanilla Biscuits!
  • 225g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or essence
  • 1 egg
  • 225g flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 50g sultanas

Cream the butter and sugar with vanilla paste or essence. Add the egg and stir through. Mix in the dry ingredients.

Roll into balls – tablespoons – and flatten with a fork on a prepared tray. bake for 15-20 minutes at 190°c.

Now isn’t that the most simplest recipe you have ever read? Now give it a go and perhaps it will become one of your go-to’s as well!

Happy baking xx

 

 

 

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Triple Choc Cherry Cookies

Another cookie favourite at home is this fun recipe with 3 different types of chocolate and  red glace cherries in them – personally I love the cherries but if you don’t love them like me feel free to use cranberries.

Makes 24                                    Preparation: 10 Minutes                    Cooking: 20 minutes

  • 125g butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 eggimage
  • 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
  • 2 cups mixed white, milk & dark chocolate, chopped
  • 100g packet red glace cherries
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°c/160°c fan bake. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar until pale & creamy. Add the egg and beat until combined.
  3. Sift in the flour, stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate & cherries.
  4. Place heaped tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared tray, leaving little room for spreading.
  5. Bake cookies for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. * the cookies will firm as they  cool.

Whilst this batch does look a little less than perfect, you will have to take the hubby’s word for it that they  tasted great 🙂
Happy baking xx

 

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