Category: Recipes
Salted Caramel Brownies

Salted Caramel Brownies

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Oki so I have my first exam on Thursday (*insert panicked stress noise*). I’m sure it’ll be fine but I’m still  in a roller coaster state of ‘oh it’ll all work out’ and ‘oh man I have so much work to do!!!’. I guess this isn’t helped by the fact that my levels of motivation have hit rock bottom and I’m currently in a state of perpetual procrastination. So I’m going to leave this post short (again) and try to do some work – little and often right?

(Just as a heads up though – these are great revision snacks! They also work really well with jam or fresh berries in the middle instead of the caramel if you’d rather!)

Recipe

Makes 16 squares

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 210ml Vegetable oil
  • 320g Light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 4 Medium eggs
  • 80g Cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate, as it has added sugar and less cocoa, and so has much less flavour)
  • 130g Plain flour
  • 50g Milk chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 170g Caramel
  • ½ tsp Salt

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Line a small, square tin (mine was 20×20 cm) with butter and baking paper.
  2. In a large bowl whisk together the oil, sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs and whisk until fully combined. Add the cocoa and whisk again (go slowly here as the cocoa will go everywhere if whisked too fast). Then add the flour and the chopped chocolate and whisk until fully mixed
  3. Pour half the mixture into the lined tin and smooth out with a spatula.
  4. Mix together the caramel and the salt in a bowl and then blob it over the brownies. Top with blobs of the remaining brownie mixture and then use a knife to swirl the two a little.
  5. Bake the brownies in the oven for 25-35 minutes. Be careful not to over bake here, as you want brownies to be slightly gooey in the middle. If you’re used to baking cakes I’d say take them out 5 minutes before you’d think it’d be ready if you were making a cake.
  6. Cut into 16 squares and serve! (They’re especially good with fresh berries and cream!)

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Falafel Salad

Falafel Salad

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Oki so I have exams next week and needless to say I’m stressing like crazy so I’m going to keep things simple this week. Say hello to falafel salad…

Recipe

Serves 1

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 Falafel
  • 1 tbsp Pine nuts
  • A handful of Cherry tomatoes
  • A handful of Mixed salad leaves
  • Hummus to serve

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Put the falafel into a small roasting tin and warm in the oven for about 5 minutes (or to packet instructions). Add the pine nuts to the tin 1 minute before they come out.
  2. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. Arrange some salad leaves into a bowl and then scatter over the tomato quarters.
  3. Arrange the falafel around the plate, sprinkle over the pine nuts and then serve with hummus!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Strawberry Cube

Strawberry Cube

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I was planning on doing a series of strawberry recipes for Wimbledon season as who doesnt love a lil’ month of themed recipes, however as the strawbs are so delish right now I thought why not bring these out early and enjoy strawberry season for longer? First one up is this cute strawberry cube: strawberry bavarois filled with a cream cheese mixture and coated in a red mirror glaze. These look a little fancy, but they’re not that hard to put together, worst comes to worst they might look a little rough around the edges but they’ll still taste great!

When I was little my mum, sister and I would go to this local farm in the summer and do the ‘pick your own’ where you pick up a punnet and fill it with as many strawberries as possible. We’d then live off strawberries for the week, trying to get through them all before they went mouldy. One of my fave treats from back then was my mum’s strawberry ice cream which she’d make from the abundance of fresh strawberries we’d pick. It was always so fresh, zingy and bursting with a really authentic strawberry taste – completely different to the stuff you get in supermarkets. We stopped picking strawberries a few years ago and I haven’t tasted anything like that ice cream until I made these delish cubes. The bavarois is made with real strawberries, so whether you use fresh of frozen ones you end up with a really pure strawberry flavour!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 3 hours, plus chilling time

Ingredients

For the Bavarois

  • 250g Frozen strawberries (or fresh if available)
  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 10ml Lemon juice
  • 4 Leaves of gelatin (around 8g)
  • 2 Egg whites
  • 160ml Double cream

For the Cheesecake filling

  • 65g Cream cheese
  • 1 tbsp Smooth strawberry jam (around 15g)

For the Crumble

  • 100g Digestive biscuits
  • 50g Butter

To Decorate

  • 100g White chocolate
  • Green food colouring
  • A few Sesame seeds

For the Mirror glaze

  • 150ml Water
  • 150g Caster sugar
  • 200g Condensed milk
  • 6 Leaves of gelatin
  • 370g White chocolate
  • A few drops of red food colouring

Method

  1. Begin by making the bavarois. Put the strawberries and sugar into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
  2. Fill a small bowl with cold water and soak the gelatin in it for around 5 minutes until soft. Warm the lemon juice in a small pan until just below the boil. Then squeeze the gelatin to remove excess water and put it into the lemon juice to dissolve.
  3. Take a whisk a gently whisk the egg whites and then the cream into soft peaks.
  4. Fold the lemon juice mixture into the strawberry puree. Then fold in the cream, followed by the egg whites until the mixture is smooth.
  5. Pour the mixture into some silicon cube-shaped moulds to fill it up half way. Leave these to set in the fridge for 2 hours.
  6. Now make the cream cheese filling. Mix the cream cheese and jam in a bowl until smooth. Then pipe the mixture into the centre of the set bavarois in a little blob.
  7. Pour the rest of the bavarois over the top of the filling and leave to set for at least 3 hours, or better overnight.
  8. Meanwhile make the crumble. Crush the biscuits in a large bowl with the end of a rolling pin to make a fine crumb. Then melt the butter in a small pan and pour it onto the biscuits. Mix to combine, then set aside until needed.
  9. Now make the chocolate leaves. Gently melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add the green food colouring. Then dip a knife in the chocolate and press it onto a sheet of baking paper to make a leaf shape.
  10. Repeat to make a line of leaves across the sheet of baking paper. Then place the baking paper between two props on either side to make the paper sag in the middle. Leave to set until needed.
  11. When everything is ready make the mirror glaze. Put the water, sugar and condensed milk into a small pan and heat for around 1 minute, until the sugar has dissolved.
  12. Soak the gelatin in a bowl of cold water for around 5 minutes until soft. Then squeeze out the excess water and add the gelatin to the condensed milk mixture and stir to dissolve.
  13. Finely chop the white chocolate and put it into a glass bowl. Then pour the condensed milk mixture over this chocolate. Stir to help the chocolate melt for 3-4 minutes.
  14. Take a hand blender and carefully blend the chocolate into the liquid until smooth. Try to not take the blender too high in the mixture or it will create air bubbles.
  15. Sieve the glaze into a large jug to remove as many bubbles as possible. If there are still bubbles continue to sieve until the mixture is completely smooth.
  16. Add the red colouring to the glaze and then pulse again with the hand blender until smooth and uniform in colour. Set aside, covered in clingfilm, until needed.
  17. When ready turn the bavarois out onto a wire rack with a large tray or baking tin underneath to catch any excess glaze. Make sure the glaze is around 30-35˚C in temperature and then pour it over the bavarois to coat them evenly. Leave to set for 10-15 minutes.
  18. Carefully transfer the bavarois onto your plates. Then sprinkle a little of the biscuit crumb around the base of the bavarois. Carefully place some of the sesame seeds around the edge of the cubes to look like strawberry seeds.
  19. Finally, carefully peel the chocolate leaves off the baking sheet and then place them on the top of the cubes to look like leaves. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Turtle Cookies

Turtle Cookies

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So funny story about how I found these. I was originally searching on google images for pictures of turtle shaped cookies as I found pictures of the idea on pinterest and I wanted to make some of my own. However, the first things that came up when I searched ‘turtle cookies’ were tonnes of these treats, and they looked so mouthwatering I knew I had to try making some myself! They’re essentially rich chocolate biscuits, rolled in pecans (although I’ve used hazelnuts as I think they’re a superior nut) and then filled with salted caramel and drizzled with melted chocolate. I mean what’s not to love eh?

As you may or may not know it’s currently mental health awareness week – this year focusing on the very key issue of body image so I thought I’d briefly touch on this. We all have bodies and we all have varying opinions of them. Personally I’m not as positive about my body as perhaps I should be. I’m a little too round, too squidgy, too ‘curvy’, whatever is the most pc. I’ve also had an annoying conflict of interests between my passion for baking and my want to be healthy and slim for a really long time. I now find myself constantly swinging between being miserable because I’m not baking in an attempt to eat healthily, and disliking my body because of all the baked goods I eat. Of course there is something called self control, but I’ve never been very good at applying that to myself when it comes to baked goods.  But although I’ve not quite got to the point of accepting my roundness I have started to get to the point where I can accept how I look and not let it affect my mental health which is something for now. So if you’re in a similar position I just want you to know that if you’re insecure about your body firstly know that you are gorgeous, even if you can’t see it,  and secondly that there is so much more to life than how you look. So don’t let size get you down – there’s so much more to focus on and enjoy in life, and having a little extra padding won’t stop you from doing any of it!

Recipe

Makes 20

Time: Around 90 minutes

Ingredients

  • 80g Unsalted butter
  • 140g Caster sugar
  • 1 Large egg, separated
  • 2 tbsp Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 140g Plain flour
  • 40g Cocoa powder
  • 200g Chopped hazelnuts
  • 200g Caramel
  • 1/2 tsp Table salt
  • 25g Milk chocolate to decorate

Method

  1. Begin by making the cookies. Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
  2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolk, milk and vanilla and mix again until combined.
  3. Stir the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture to make a soft dough. Then wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
  4. Take the egg white and whisk it until it’s frothy. Then put the chopped hazelnuts into another bowl.
  5. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into 20 equally sized balls. Then dip each one in the egg whites followed by the chopped hazelnuts. Place the balls on a lined baking tray.
  6. Using a round measuring spoon (like a 1/2 teaspoon) press into the centre of each ball to make a dip.
  7. Bake the cookies in the oven for around 10 minutes until just set. They will harden more when cooled so don’t wait for them to crisp.
  8. Leave the cookies to cool completely on wire racks. Meanwhile put the caramel into a bowl and stir in the salt. Transfer the caramel to a pipping bag and leave in the fridge until needed.
  9. Pipe the caramel into the centre of each cooled cookie and then leave for 5 minutes to set.
  10. Meanwhile melt some chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Spoon the chocolate into a disposable piping bag and cut a small round hole in the bottom. Then pipe a drizzle of chocolate over the top of each cookie. Leave again to set and then serve!

Alternatives to try:

  • Fill the middle with a berry coulis instead of caramel, and then drizzle with dark chocolate.
  • Roll the biscuits in chopped peanuts (or any other nut you’d prefer).
  • Flavour the dough with the zest of 1 lemon/orange and fill with lemon curd/chocolate ganache.

Thanks for reading! For more info on Mental Health Awareness week click on the link here…

Emma x
Dark Chocolate and Coconut Cookies

Dark Chocolate and Coconut Cookies

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I’ve been thinking a lot about mental health support recently. It’s always there in my mind but over the past week or so it’s been playing on my mind a bit more. Primarily how do we make support for those with mental illness better? We are lucky enough to have great support in the UK through charity groups and in my case university counselling systems, but it’s still no where near enough for the growing numbers of people needing these services. I’m trying to write an article at the moment for an Oxford newspaper about mental health support in the university and during my research I found that around 12% of the university’s undergraduates tend to use the counselling service every year – and that’s just the people who have the courage to seek help. If that’s the number of people in the system how many are suffering across the entire community?

Unfortunately there’s little large-scale difference a single person can make on ground level. We can do our best to help by starting conversations, breaking down taboos, and raising money for the great organisations that are trying to help. But we can’t reduce NHS waiting times or the way in which help is given by these systems. I grant you that this isn’t much of a positive conclusion. I’d prefer to leave you on a grand call to arms ‘this is how we will go forward’ moment, but alas I think the most I can say for now is look after each other. Talk to each other, have real conversations about real things, not just flippant ones about food or reality tv (although they’re great to!). Bake with friends, eat with friends, take some time for yourself. Find what you enjoy and do that. You don’t have time to be doing anything else.

(On a side note, today I felt like writing about something more poignant than cookies, but nonetheless these are super super moreish and really easy to make so I’d really recommend them for group baking and sharing!)

Recipe

Makes 18

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 250g Plain flour
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • ½ tsp Baking soda
  • 2 tsp Cornflour
  • ¼ tsp Salt
  • 115g Melted butter
  • 150g Brown sugar
  • 50g Caster sugar
  • 1 Large egg
  • 2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 120g Desiccated coconut
  • 130g Chocolate chips

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornflour and salt into a large bowl and whisk together to combine.
  3. In another bowl whisk together the melted butter and the two sugars until fully combined. Then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and then mix with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms. Add the desiccated coconut and the chocolate chips and mix again to incorporate them.
  5. Separate and then roll the dough into small balls (about 1 tbsp of mixture each) and then place them on the lined baking trays with some space between them.
  6. Bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes until spread and starting to turn golden. Leave to cool and then eat!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x