Bourbon Biscuits

I must confess, I am not a huge fan of the bourbon biscuit. However, a colleague recently scoffed at the idea of being able to make biscuits at home and so to prove to him it was possible I offered to bake a batch of his favourite biscuit. You guessed it, the chocolate bourbon!
For the biscuits
2oz butter / marg
2oz caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
4oz plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the icing
3oz icing sugar
2oz butter / marg
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp black coffee
1oz dark chocolate

First cream the marg and sugar together until pale and creamy then beat in the syrup. Sift in the flour, cocoa and bicarb and mix together into a stiff paste. If you find the mixture is too dry you can add a couple of drops of water. Knead the ball well, squash it in to a flattened ball and put it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, this will stop the biscuits spreading in the oven.

Roll the dough quite thinly on a floured surface to a thickness of a biscuit and cut out the individual rectangle shaped biscuits with a knife. I added the regulation 10 holes on the top with the blunt end of a bamboo skewer before putting the biscuits in the oven at 160° for 15 minutes. If cutting out identical rectangle shapes and poking them with little round holes sounds a bit labourious then you can just cut out round biscuits instead (see below).

To make the icing, beat the butter into the icing sugar, cocoa and coffee. When the biscuits have cooled you can sandwich them together. And hey presto, you’ve made bourbon biscuits!

Rocky Road

This is a recipe I’ve adapted from Nigella’s Christmas Rocky Road recipe (see below) The great thing about Rocky Road is you can swop and change any of the ingredients to get your ideal mix as long as the amount of dry ingredients stays the same.http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/christmasrockyroad_90624.shtml
Ingredients
8oz dark chocolate
3oz milk chocolate
3 tbsp golden syrup
6oz biscuits
4oz nuts
4oz raisins
2oz mini marshmallows
2 Crunchie bars

Put the chocolate, butter and syrup in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Put the biscuits (I used half digestive and half Rich Tea) in a freezer bag and bash them up a bit with a rolling pin. You want some big bits and smaller crumbs as well.
I used almonds and Brazil nuts, I left the almonds whole and chopped the Brazil nuts in half. Chop up the Crunchie bars into small chunks and if your mini marshmallows are not very mini, you can cut them up with a pair of scissors.
Now all you need to do is chuck everything into the melted chocolate mixture and give it a good stir. Pour the mixture into a square tin that’s been lightly greased and lined with paper. Now the difficult part...... waiting for it to set! It should take about 2-3 hours and when you take it out of the tin you can cut it into squares – I got 16 out of mine. This chocolatey treat is best kept in the fridge and will easily last up to a week. I’d recommend getting it out about an hour before you want to eat it so it starts to go a little bit soft – yummy!

Choco Chunk Birthday Cookies!!

My very good friend Jane came back from India this week, and to celebrate this and her Birthday I made her my extra special choco chunk cookies! These buttery treats were so easy and cheap to make (great if your on a budget!) and went down a storm at Jane's Birthday party :) I used a recipe I have been doing since I was a child and it goes something like this

Ingredients:
125g plain flour
70 g butter (softened)
1 egg
50 g soft brown sugar (Demerara)
50 g superfine / caster sugar
160 g chocolate chips (see notes)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Now, Jane HATES nuts so I left them out this time, but usually i add 50g Hazelnuts for an extra crunch in the cookie. I also use chopped chocolate bar because you can then decide how BIG or small you want your chunks!! I like them BIG!! You can use white, dark or milk depending on your taste.
I start by mixing together the sugar, flour, butter (make sure you leave the butter out on the side for at least an hour before starting) bi carb and vanilla in the food processer until it is well combined.
Next I add the rest of the ingreadients and mix well.
Putting the mixture in the fridge for as long as you can stand (at least an hour) is the best tip I can give as this prevents the cookies from spreading into pancake like specimens in the oven and also gives them a good crunch.

Set the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4.

Put a generous teaspoon sized ball on a greased baking tray trying not to handle the mixture too much as it needs to be cold. Space each cookie ball about 4cm away from each other and tap down slightly with the spoon.

Place in the pre heated oven for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven (just keep checking until golden brown).

Place on a cooling tray but definatley try one while they are stil warm and the chocolate is gooey!

Mocha Fudge Cake with Coffee Icing

This cake is for all you coffee lovers out there (and maybe the chocolate lovers too!) I must say, it’s not for the faint hearted, it needs your full attention and a good couple of hours of your time so don’t attempt to make it in a rush! I got this recipe from the BBC Good Food Magazine Book of Cakes and Bakes.

FOR THE ICING
175g / 6oz plain chocolate, melted
50g / 2oz butter, melted
150ml / ¼ pint double-strength expresso
1tsp vanilla extract
300g / 10oz icing sugar

FOR THE CAKE
300g / 10oz plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs separated
125ml / 4fl oz milk
4 tbsp instant coffee granules
85g / 3oz butter
280g / 10oz caster sugar
85g / 3oz plain chocolate, melted
125ml / 4fl oz soured cream

First you make the icing – melt the butter and chocolate and when they have cooled whisk them together with the other icing ingredients. I just used instant coffee instead of the double-expresso and made it quite strong (about 2tsp of coffee granules in 150ml of hot water) Put the icing in the fridge to chill for 3-4 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / Gas 4. Butter and flour two 20cm / 8in cake tins.

If like me you only have one cake tin then you’ll have to make the cake mixture in two halves. Simply divide all the ingredient measurements by two, make one lot of the mixture and while that is in the oven you can make the second batch. In the case of the eggs I used 2 medium eggs in each half of the cake mixture as it’s kinda hard to divide 3 eggs in to two!
Sift the flour and baking powder. In another bowl stir the vanilla in to the egg yolks. Heat the milk and dissolve the coffee granules into it then allow to cool.
Cream the butter and 200g / 8oz sugar (100g / 4oz if doing half method). Whisk in the egg mixture and then the melted chocolate. Fold in the flour, the cooled milk and the soured cream. Whisk the egg whites until stiff then whisk in the remaining 80g / 2oz sugar (40g / 1oz) to form firm peaks. Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture and pour into the tins. Bake the cakes for 30 minutes (either together of separately) until risen.

When the cakes have cooled, carefully split each cake into two halves. Place the first cake layer on the bottom and cover this with the icing.

If you heat your knife in a cup of boiling water it will help spread the icing a little easier. Place the next layer of cake on top and repeat until all four layers have been stacked up and covered with icing. I would recommend assembling your cake on the plate you are serving it on if possible as once it is iced it will be quite difficult to move. My cake had to be transported to Blackpool for someone’s birthday so unfortunately I had to display it on the lid of a Roses tin!

I’m afraid I don’t have any pictures of the cake once it’s sliced as it was baked for someone else but the birthday girl has since told me that it was absolutely delicious so I think we can safely say it was a success!

Banana Bread

This is a Nigella recipe – http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=222 – and it is possibly the nicest banana bread I have ever had (even if I do say so myself!) I followed her recipe pretty much to the letter, the only changes I made were to soak the raisins in brandy as I didn’t have any rum and I did half butter and half Stork margarine to make the cake a bit lighter.

The melted butter seemed to make the mixture very runny so I also added an extra tablespoon full of flour at the end. It was still quite a wet mixture even after the added flour and I was quite dubious about whether or not it would work but as you can see from the picture, it rose perfectly! (I cooked mine for 1 hour and 10 minutes)

This cake lasted me 5 days and was still really soft and moist right down to the last piece. I just kept it wrapped in the grease proof paper it was cooked in and some cling film over that. I can really recommend this recipe and I hope you like it as much as we did.

Happy baking!

Best Birthday Cake

Butter cream filling and chocolate syrup icing!!! Say no more! This is a Nigella recipe that will have all your friends requesting it for their birthday :)

http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=190

Belated Valentine Sugar Cookies

This was a labour of love, they didnt really go according to plan, but turned out O.K in the end!! Recipe to follow :)