Caramel Stroopwafels

Tuesday night tv is a bit of a treat at the moment isn't it, starting off with Bake Off, followed by Dr Foster. This week was even more of a treat for me as the husband was away so I had the remote control to myself, with no risk of popping out to make a cuppa during an ad break and coming back to football, or any other random sport, on the screen.

What a night bake off was, starting off with some delicious caramel shortbreads, followed by a few grainy stroopwafels in the middle, and ending up with some epic (and one not so epic) caramel cakes.

A few days ago I thought about attempting to make waffle wafers or cones this week in my waffle maker, so when I saw the stroopwafels on Bake Off I knew that I had to make them, it was fate. I must admit that I was a bit hesitant after watching all the bakers fail with their caramel fillings, with not one of them having the right consistency, although the making of the actual biscuit didn't look too complicated. I've eaten stroopwafels a few times as they seem to be readily available in coffee shops, as well as supermarkets and trendy Scandinavian shops. The way to enjoy them is to pop one on top of your warm coffee to soften the caramel, and allow the caramel and cinnamon flavours to come out.

As the dough has yeast in I was kind of expecting it to be like bread dough, but it was more like a cookie dough - whether that was right or not I don't know, but it worked. My waffle maker is only a cheap one bought from Lidl a few months ago, and for the stroopwafels to be as thin as they should be the waffle maker really needs to be shallower, which meant mine were a little on the chunky side.

Apart from burning my fingertips slicing the stroopwafels open, the whole process was pretty painless, relatively quick, and a lot less messy than I'd anticipated. I decided to make the caramel in the microwave to avoid burning a pan, which seemed to work really well and resulted in a lovely smooth caramel. The recipe I used called for treacle, but as I didn't have any, following a recent store cupboard clear out, I instead used maple flavour golden syrup.

Apart from looking a little rustic, I was extremely pleased with how these turned out. They had just the right amount of crispness, and the caramel was just the right amount of sticky. I know I should've cut a perfect round with a cutter, but I decided not to as the shape wasn't too far off round anyway.

If I was to see these in a coffee shop wrapped in cellophane and tied up with string, I would definitely be tempted to buy some, and I'll definitely be making these again, especially the 'wafel' part, which would be great served with ice cream.

Peanut Butter & Nutella Sandwich Cookies

I can't believe that it's the third week off Bake Off tomorrow and I haven't joined in with any baking this time around. I used to bake at least once or twice a week around the themes, but I guess that's how I came to put on half a stone each series! Thank goodness for kids who will quite happily eat my baking, especially at the moment when it doesn't happen very often.

It's bread week this week so I don't know how I'm going to resist the smell of freshly baked bread if I decide to join in, as it's so hard to stop at just one slice. Ohhh, why does the food that tastes so good have to be so bad. 

It was hard to resist one of these cookies when I took them out of the oven, but a little disaster put paid to that when I knocked a glass of water over the baking sheet and ended up with around half of the biscuits getting wet and looking like they had been dunked in tea for too long. Thankfully I managed to salvage enough for the photos, which meant there was one each for the husband and kids, and none for me, hurrah! You may also notice that some of the cookies are a little on the scorched side - this, I blame the oven for! The fan broke on my main oven a little while ago, and since then the heat distribution within the oven seems to be a touch on the unpredictable side, to say the least. I really should get the repair man out..

The cookie recipe calls for only three ingredients, making them extremely easy to make, and an ideal recipe to bake with children. In fact the first time I made these cookies I made them with my youngest when he was just two, and then last year I used the recipe to make Halloween spider cookies. This time I filled them with a creamy Nutella filling, which also had just three ingredients.

Last Minute Easter Treats

There's only a few days until Easter but there's still plenty of time to bake some Easter treats. I've gathered together a few ideas for last minute Easter treats that you can keep the kids busy with this week.

Caramel Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

Chocolate Pretzel Easter Nests

Chocolate Crispy Easter Egg with a Hidden Creme Egg

Mini Egg Cookies - Makes approx 16 large cookies

115g Butter, softened
230g Caster sugar
35g Golden syrup
1 Egg
230g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
100g Chocolate Mini eggs

• Beat the butter and sugar together
• Mix in the golden syrup & egg
• Stir the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and add to the butter/sugar mixture
• Mix well, adding the mini eggs just as the mixture starts to come together
• Roll mixture into balls (heaped tbsp) and place on a greased baking sheet, spaced well apart
• Bake in a preheated 170 C oven for approx 10 minutes, until golden brown
• Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack
• Store in an airtight container

No Bake Easter Loaf Cake


Sugar & Spice Easter Nest Biscuits


Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes


Easter Mini Egg Rocky Road


Chocolate Rice Krispie Easter Egg Nests



No Bake Unicorn Mini Egg White Chocolate Slice 


Lemon & Almond Easter Cake


Mini Egg Chocolate Pavlovas



Easter Chocolate Granola Cakes

Extremely Chocolatey Easter Cupcakes

Easter Bunny Butt Cupcakes

Mini Egg Rocky Road Bites

For more Easter baking inspiration follow my Seasonal recipes Pinterest board:

Chocolate Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

The summer holidays are coming to a close, with just two weeks left here before the new term starts. A couple of weeks ago I shared a simple recipe for Sweet & Salty Marshmallow Squares, which is one of many recipes on this blog that's fun and easy to do with the kids. Cooking is a great way to keep the kids entertained for a few hours, especially during the school holidays when parents may run out of ways to keep the kids occupied.

Iceland have challenged me to take a look around one of their stores and choose some ingredients that can be put together to make a delicious dish, that's easy to prepare with the kids. If your kids are older they might even like to make this one on their own, leaving you to get on with some jobs (or put your feet up and wait for the finished dish!)

The bank holiday is coming up and these will make a delicious alternative to a regular ice cream, especially if it's a hot weekend!

I was delighted to find Millies Cookie dough amongst the frozen desserts in Iceland, and even more delighted to see that they can be popped into the oven without having to get my hands or any utensils dirty. It couldn't be easier to enjoy freshly baked cookies.

Another hack for making these ice cream sandwiches is in the preparation of the ice cream. A 500ml round tub of ice cream is the perfect diameter to fit into these cookies once they're baked, and can be sliced whilst still in the tub, which saves lots of mess, but it was a VERY hot day when I made these and, as you can see, they melted VERY quickly.

Chocolate Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches - makes 3

box of Millies Triple Choc cookie dough

500ml tub of Ice cream (I used Oreo)

sprinkles

• bake the cookies as per the directions on the box
• as soon as you take the cookies out of the oven flatten them with a fork
• leave to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely
• using a sharp knife cut three 1-2cm slices of ice cream in the cardboard container 
• remove the cardboard from around the edge of the ice cream and sandwich between two cookies
• roll in sprinkles or sugar strands
• eat immediately or return to the freezer until ready to eat

Now the only thing left to decide is which flavour to choose next? Milk chocolate, white chocolate or triple chocolate?

This post has been commissioned by Iceland #PowerofFrozen

Marshmallow Cookie Sandwich

I've recently discovered the art of marshmallow making, and it's a lot easier than I thought it would be, as long as you have a decent stand mixer, and use the correct ingredients.

The first batch I made were a little soft, as I didn't use enough gelatine. The next batch didn't even get off the ground as I used vegetarian gelatine. The third batch were just perfect though, so this is the recipe I'll be using in future to make various flavoured marshmallows.

I added some crushed freeze dried strawberries to this batch, and some dried strawberries to the cookies, and sandwiched them together to make cookie sandwiches.

Marshmallows - makes 25/30

8 leaves gelatine

cold water

400g caster sugar

50g golden syrup

1/2 tsp salt

100ml water

tsp vanilla extract

20g freeze dried strawberries, crushed

equal parts cornflour & icing sugar

• add the gelatine leaves to a bowl and cover with cold water & set aside
• prepare an 8"x10" baking tin by lightly greasing with a flavourless oil, or cooking spray (I use a silicone baking tin which makes it easy to remove the marshmallows)
• add the caster sugar, golden syrup, salt, 100ml water & vanilla to a large saucepan
• gently heat until the sugar has dissolved
• increase the heat and bring to the boil
• let the syrup bubble away without stirring, until it reaches 235C on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage)
• squeeze the liquid from the gelatine leaves and add the leaves to the bowl of a food mixer
• with the motor running and a balloon whisk attached, pour the syrup onto the gelatine leaves
• whisk for approx 10 minutes until soft peaks form, and then add the crushed strawberries & whisk to combine
• pour into your prepared tin and leave for a few hours to set
• once set, turn out onto a surface dusted with your cornflour/icing sugar
• using a sharp knife (lightly greased) cut into squares, dusting with the cornflour/icing sugar as you go

Cookies - makes 12 large round cookies

225g caster sugar

60g butter, softened

225g self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

50g dried strawberries

• beat the sugar and butter together
• stir in the flour, salt, vanilla and egg, until well combined
• stir in the dried strawberries, and mix well
• if you want large round cookies then divide into 12 and roll dough into balls, then place well spaced apart onto one or two greased & lined baking sheets
• for square cookies :spread the dough onto a greased & lined baking sheet and flatten out
• bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 10-15 minutes until puffed up & golden brown
• cool the round cookies on a wire rack
• for square cookies :slice the large cookie into squares and allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before cooling on a wire rack

For added indulgence, add a little strawberry jam onto the cookies, and microwave for 5-8 seconds

Jumbo Chocolate Orange Cookies

The end of the school year has arrived, and I can't believe that my baby boy has completed 2 years of school already. It suddenly dawned upon me yesterday that we hadn't got anything for his teacher, and even though he'll have the same teacher next year it's nice to give a little thank you gift, so we decided to bake cookies.

This is my favourite cookie recipe, and I just add different flavours to suit. Yesterday I made lemon and sultana to take to bootcamp as it was my birthday, and we decided that chocolate orange would be a nice flavour for the teacher. They can also be made in whatever size you choose - I used the same recipe previously to make mini spiced lemon cookies, but this time we wanted to make jumbo cookies, and packed six in a box to take into school.

Jumbo Chocolate Orange Cookies - makes approx 9

115g Butter, softened
230g Caster sugar
35g Golden syrup
1 Egg
zest of 2 oranges
230g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
100g dark chocolate chips

• Beat the butter and sugar together
• Beat in the golden syrup, egg & orange zest
• Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir until well combined
• Stir in the chocolate chips
• Roll mixture into large balls (approx size of a satsuma) and place on a greased baking sheet, spaced well apart (you may need to do this in a few batches)
• Bake in a preheated 170 C oven for approx 12-14 minutes, until golden brown
• Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack
• Store in an airtight container

Ginger Shortbread Advent Calendar Biscuits

I was told this morning that it's only 3 more sleeps until Jack gets to open the first door on his advent calendar, which he's very excited about. It also means we get to make a start on our advent gingerbread house. If you've not got around to buying an advent calendar yet then why not try these advent cookies. You get to eat one each day from now until Christmas, remembering to save the last one for Santa on Christmas Eve!

Find the full recipe on the Great British Chefs website here.

This recipe has been commissioned by Great British Chefs

Advent Gingerbread House

"Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, 

Please put a penny in the old man's hat.."

There's no denying it, in a little over a month Christmas will be upon us again. This past weekend marked the start of the Christmas countdown for many people as one by one the Christmas ads appeared on prime time tv. On my Facebook timeline three people were watching Polar Express and someone had put their Christmas tree up, as she does every year once the Christmas ads appear, as it's now their family tradition.

We have our own little Christmas Eve tradition of laying our Christmas plates and mugs out for Santa (and a carrot for Rudolf), leaving the magic key on the door and sprinkling magic reindeer food in the garden. A few years ago I started making gingerbread houses, which I've either decorated myself or have been a joint effort with the kids. This year Lindt sent us a hamper of their delicious Christmas chocolates to use to start a family Christmas tradition, so we decided to make an advent gingerbread house, with a Lindt chocolate figure for each day of advent. We can then save the house for a feast on New Years Eve!

We started off by making a template for our house out of paper and then transferring it to our rolled out gingerbread before baking. Jack made leftover gingerbread into men and 'rocks'.

The next stage is to assemble the house and make sure it's stable before you start to decorate. You can 'glue' the walls of the house together with a caramel, royal icing or chocolate. I prefer to use chocolate as it sets quite quickly and is also great tasting with the gingerbread (and you don't notice how messy I am as much).

It's then best to leave the house overnight to set completely before decorating. We rolled some fondant icing onto a baking tray for our snowy scene, and then decorated the house with marshmallows glued on with more chocolate (we melted down a few mini Lindt gold bears for this).

We dabbed a little melted chocolate onto the iced base to secure the Lindt chocolate figures (bears, reindeers, snowmen and santa) and then numbered the icing in front with numbers 1-24. This is best done with an edible pen but as I couldn't find mine we used an ink pen but will make sure we don't eat the icing!

It's not perfect, but it's ours!

Gingerbread recipe

250g butter
200g light brown sugar
60g golden syrup
30g black treacle
625g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger

• Heat the butter, sugar, syrup & treacle together in a saucepan until melted
• In the bowl of a stand mixer mix together the dry ingredients
• With the motor running & flat beater attached pour the wet ingredients slowly into the dry until it starts to come together (you may not need all the liquid)
• Form the dough into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured surface
• Cut into the desired shapes & bake in a preheated 180C oven for 8-10 minutes until the edges just start to brown

We received the following Lindt chocolate in our hamper. One of my favourite items has to be the chocolate gift tags, which as just £2 for 5 is cheaper than many paper ones!

Exclusive Lindt Bear 500g
Lindt Bear Advent Calendar 260g
Lindt Chocolate Lovers Bag 201g
Chocolate Reindeers & Antlers
Lindt Advent Calendar 160g
Lindt Reindeer Barn Chocolate
Lindt Gold Reindeer 100g
Chocolate Santa 125g
Christmas Gold Bell 100g
Lindor Christmas Decorations
Lindt Bear Tree Decorations
Santa & Reindeer Sleigh
Lindt Mini Santa's 50g
Lindt Mini Snowmen 50g