Tag: Biscuits

Cinnamon Spiral Cookies

Cinnamon Spiral Cookies

I’m back! Recently I’ve been so busy that I’ve been working solely from other people’s recipes rather than creating my own, but today I found some time to start being creative again, so here we are!

My family are obsessed with cinnamon buns so part 2 of why I haven’t been creating new recipes recently is because I’ve been making so many cinnamon buns for everyone that we’ve forgotten other bakes exist. But today I thought it was time to branch out from one swirly cinnamon thing to another – biscuits! These are a bit quicker to make than buns as you don’t have to wait for anything to rise, but you still get a sweet cinnamon morsel and they’re more aesthetic than your average digestive, so what’s not to love?

I used dairy free margarine to make these as my Mum’s dairy free, but I’d recommend using block butter if at all possible as it’ll make the dough a lot easier to work with when rolling. If you are working with marg two tips are….

  1. Try cutting down to 1/2 an egg by whisking up a whole egg in a small bowl and then trickling in a little bit of it to the butter-sugar mixture. Marg has a higher water content than block butter, so by cutting down the amount of egg you use you’ll be able to cut down the liquid content in the dough.
  2. Give yourself more time to chill the dough before rolling and slicing – the firmer it is the easier it’ll be to work with (though make sure it’s not actually frozen because that’s even trickier to work with!)

At the end of the day though, they’ll taste good whatever. Mine ended up coming out in all shapes, sizes, and colours – but they all taste great so job done! (I always think it’s good to have a range of sizes when baking individually-portioned things as it means you can choose a treat based on how hungry you are etc!)

Recipes

Makes around 30

Time: 1 hour (plus chilling time)

Ingredients

  • 225g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 375g plain flour
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1tsp ground ginger
  • 1tsp ground mixed spice
  • ½ tsp salt

For the filling

  • 75g butter
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 3tbsp ground cinnamon

Method

  1. Beat together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
  2. Add the egg and beat again until combined. Then add the flour, spices and salt and stir to bring it into a dough. Leave in the fridge until needed.
  3. Next mix the ingredients for the filling in a small bowl until smooth. The mixture should be soft enough to spread easily.
  4. Divide the biscuit dough in two. Roll one part into a thin rectangle around 50x20cm. (I find doing this between two pieces of clingfilm helpful!)
  5. Spread a thin layer of the cinnamon filling over the dough, leaving a 1cm boarder along one of the short ends.
  6. Roll the dough up from the short end with the filling going to the edge to make a tight roll.
  7. Repeat this process with the other block of dough. Then place both rolls on a baking tray (or plate) lined with baking paper, cover with clingfilm and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. (You want them firm enough to slice easily, but not frozen solid).
  8. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
  9. Take the rolls out the freezer and use a sharp knife to cut slices about 0.5cm thick.
  10. Place the slices on the lined baking trays and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Jumbo Jazzies!

Jumbo Jazzies!

My feed has been getting a little brown/yellow recently so I thought I’d make something more colourful! I’m currently on holiday with my family and a family friend, Anne, who suggested these look a lot like those little chocolate pic-n-mix sweeties which are called jazzies, so these are officially ‘Jumbo Jazzies’!

Recipe

Makes 12

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 125g butter
  • 175g light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 150g plain flour
  • 100g rainbow sprinkles ( I used 100s and 1000s)
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat together until smooth.
  3. Add the egg and beat until combined.
  4. Add the flour and cocoa powder and beat again to get a soft dough.
  5. Weigh the dough and divide the weight by 12 so you know how much each ball of cookie dough need to weigh (mine was 56g each). Then portion out each blob of cookie dough to this weight and place, well spaced on the lined baking trays (I put 6 cookies on each tray).
  6. Pour the 100s and 1000s into a bowl. Take one of the cookie balls and roll it in the sprinkles until covered all over. Place the cookie back on the baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the cookies.
  7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until they’ve spread out and are just starting to crisp round the edges. Leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies

Recipe

Makes 24

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 120g unsalted butter
  • 100g light brown sugar
  • 75g caster sugar
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 200g plain flour
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100g milk chocolate chips
  • 70g chopped hazelnuts
  • 120g Nutella (or other chocolate hazelnut spread)

Method

  1. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
  2. Put the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy.
  3. Add the salt, egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth.
  4. Add the flour, baking powder, chocolate chips, and chopped hazelnuts and mix again to make a smooth dough. (If the dough is looking soft you can place the dough in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up before the next step).
  5. Divide the mixture into 24 equal pieces (mine were about 30g each) and roll each bit into a ball. Place them on the lined baking trays, spaced apart enough so they have room to spread.
  6. Bake for 7-10 minutes until just starting to go golden brown. Allow to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Easiest Ever Triple Chocolate Cookies

Easiest Ever Triple Chocolate Cookies

 

Recipe

Makes 12

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 125g butter
  • 175g light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 100g plain flour
  • 50g milk chocolate
  • 50g white chocolate

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat together until smooth.
  3. Add the egg and beat until combined.
  4. Add the flour and cocoa powder and beat again to get a soft dough.
  5. Roughly chop the milk and white chocolate and then stir it into the dough so it’s well distributed.
  6. Weigh the dough and divide the weight by 12 so you know how much each ball of cookie dough need to weigh (mine was 56g each). The portion out each blob of cookie dough to this weight and place, well spaced on the lined baking trays (I put 6 cookies on each tray).
  7. Sprinkle each with a little sea salt and then bake for 10-12 minutes until they’ve spread out and are just starting to crisp round the edges. Leave to cool and then enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Coffee and Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies

Coffee and Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies

So last week I did a post on how to make yourself some delicious caramelised white chocolate – now it’s time to know how to use this ingredient in your baking! These cookies are really easy to make and can be frozen as a dough, so you can make a huge batch and then just bake them as and when you want so you always have fresh cookies! (And who doesn’t always want fresh cookies?) If you’re a bit short on time you don’t have to use caramelised white chocolate, this also works really well with normal white chocolate. That said, I would recommend giving the caramelising process a go if you can because it brings a new flavour dynamic which is well worth the effort!

In other news I’ve just moved into my student house for the year which is really exciting because I now have a gorgeous kitchen to cook in all year round! It’s gonna take a little while to find my bearings and get everything sorted, but hopefully I’ll soon start getting out some content from there so keep an eye out for that – and as always any requests just throw them my way!

Recipe

Makes 12

Time: 2 hours (plus chilling time)

Ingredients

  • 170g White chocolate (30-32% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
  • 105g Unsalted butter
  • 1 ½ tbsp Instant coffee granules
  • 200g Plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • ½ tsp Baking powder
  • ¼ tsp Baking soda
  • 100g Light brown sugar
  • 75g Caster sugar
  • 1 Large egg
  • 1 Large egg yolk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
  • Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

Method

  1. Begin by making the caramelised white chocolate. Pre-heat the oven to 120˚C. Spread the roughly chopped white chocolate on a shallow baking tray lined with baking paper and put it into the oven for around 10 minutes.
  2. Take the tray out, stir the white chocolate with a spatula until evenly mixed and then put it back into the oven. Repeat this mixing every 10 minutes for the next 30-50 minutes until golden and caramelised.
  3. Leave the caramelised chocolate to set on the baking paper. (It can then be wrapped in baking paper and stored like this for up to 2 months if you don’t want to use it straight away).
  4. Now start making the cookies. Put the butter into a small pan and melt it gently over a medium heat. Once melted add the coffee and stir until dissolved. Then leave this to one side until needed.
  5. Next mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
  6. In a separate bowl whisk together the butter, sugars, egg, egg yolk and vanilla until fully combined. Add the flour mixture to these wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough starts to form.
  7. Break the caramelised white chocolate into pieces and add it to the dough.  Then mix everything together until the dough is smooth and the chocolate is incorporated. Wrap the dough in cling film and then leave it to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
  8. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C and line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
  9. Roll the dough into 60g balls and place them on the lined baking trays, making sure they’re spaced out by a couple of inches to prevent them from spreading into each other during baking.
  10. Sprinkle the cookies with a little sea salt and then bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and starting to crisp around the edges. Leave the cookies to cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. These will keep in an air-tight container for up to 5 days. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x