Peanut Butter Cookies

My dad is always banging on about peanut butter being a good source of protein/good for his diet/blahblahblah so I thought I’d use it in some baking so he has no excuse but to eat it! You’ll see from the ingredients that I used wholemeal self-raising flour and wholenut peanut butter but this was purely to please the rents, so go ahead and use normal flour and peanut butter if you like.

Ingredients

100g butter

100g peanut butter (smooth, crunchy, wholenut, whatevs)

60g Demerara sugar

60g caster sugar

1 large egg, beaten

100g wholemeal self-raising flour

20g salted peanuts

40g milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/gas mark 4. Line 1-2 baking trays with baking parchment. This mixture makes around 10 large cookies or 20 smaller ones but whatever you do, adjust baking time accordingly!

Cream the butter, sugars and peanut butter with a wooden spoon in a large mixing bowl.

Sift the flour and gradually add the beaten egg to form a sticky dough.

Mix in the peanuts and chocolate chips. Spoon blobs onto the prepared trays, leaving plenty of room for spreading.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until light golden brown. Leave the cookies a few minutes to harden before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

I really love these cookies, but then I’m the kind of girl that adds minstrels to my salted popcorn at the cinema, so I would! When I’m out of the diet-mad house I’m definitely going to try these again with normal flour and crunchy peanut butter to see what difference it makes.

Wholemeal Ginger Traybake

Sometimes you just want cake. Not oaty cake or fruity cake. Not biscuits or tarts. CAKE. This is a recipe for one of those days. I’m a massive fan of the traybake because they feed a lot of people and are generally a doddle to do. Also if you don’t have a traybake tin you can easily use a roasting tin instead. This recipe is one from my Mary Berry book which has loads of ginger cake recipes, but I chose the ‘wholemeal’ one so I could tell my mum that it’s good for you. We all know that’s bollocks so if you can’t be bothered with the wholemeal bit just replace it with normal self-raising flour.

Ingredients

175g butter

350g golden syrup

120g granulated sugar

1 ½ tbsp orange marmalade

200ml milk

175g self-raising flour

1 ½ tsp ground ginger

1 ½ tsp ground mixed spice

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

175g wholemeal self-raising flour

3 large eggs, beaten

For icing

3 tbsp lemon juice

225g icing sugar

Crystallised ginger to decorate

Preheat the oven to 160⁰C/gas mark 3. Butter and line a 30 x 23 cm traybake tin with baking parchment.

On a low heat melt the butter, syrup, sugar, marmalade and milk in a saucepan until the sugar has completely dissolved. Leave it on the side to cool for a bit.

In a large mixing bowl sift the self-raising flour with the ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Add the wholemeal flour and stir all the dry ingredients together.

Pour in the melted butter and syrup mixture into the dry ingredients with the beaten eggs. Combine well with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter. Pour into the tin and bake in the oven for around 1 ½ hours or until it is golden brown and springy in the middle. Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack.

You can see from the pictures that my icing is a bit sloppy. This is 100% down to my complete and utter laziness- I just couldn’t be bothered to weigh out the icing sugar, so I just sort of added a random amount of lemon juice to a random bowl of icing. It still tastes lovely but I have to admit it looks a bit naff so I would advise maybe following the recipe… then just add some crystallised ginger to finish.

As it’s a horrible, rainy day that feels more like September than June I’m planning on having some of this for my tea with some hot custard. Laaaavely jubly.

Cherry oat squares

Another recipe from June’s Good Food (last one I swear.) These were really quick and easy to make and made a lovely pudding with some custard if you fancied it.

Ingredients

140g butter, melted

100g self-raising flour

175g caster sugar

175g porridge oats

1 egg, beaten

100g glacé cherries, halved

50g dark chocolate

Heat the oven 170⁰C/gas mark 4. Butter and line a 22cm square tin.

Mix together the flour, sugar and oats into a large mixing bowl.

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the egg, cherries and melted butter to the flour mixture and combine completely. Pour the mixture into the tin and spread evenly with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack. Mark it lightly into 16 squares. Melt the chocolate over some simmering water and drizzle over the squares.

I think my dieting parents are either going to throw me out the house or ban me from the kitchen soon. I am apparently being an ‘enabler’ by baking nice things for them. Sounds like I’m a drug pusher but with cake!

Sugar and spice rock cakes

With a house full of people whatever I bake seems to magically disappear in a day. This is good for me because I’m allowed to bake whatever I want but it can’t be good for my family’s waistlines…Anyway, I’ve been working my way through the recipes I fancy in June’s Good Food mag and I thought I’d give these a whirl. You’ll see from my pictures that my rock cakes look more like biscuits than ‘cakes’. I have no idea why this is but they were all eaten in record time so who cares?

Ingredients (makes 10)

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp mixed spice

100g butter

85g light muscovado sugar

100g dried mixed fruit

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp milk

Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/gas mark 4. Line a tray with baking parchment. Combine the flour, baking powder and 1 tsp of mixed spice in a large mixing bowl.

Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients using your fingers until they form fine crumbs.

Mix in the muscovado sugar and fruit. Add the egg and milk. Mix it all together to create a firm dough.

Spoon ten dollops of mixture onto the baking sheet, leaving some room for spreading. Mix together the remaining mixed spice with a spoonful of Demerara sugar and sprinkle over the cakes. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

According to the original recipe it says these taste best eaten on the day they’re made, but I’m no authority on this seeing as I went to the cinema after I made them and only one was left by the time I arrived home…

Custard and white chocolate biscuits

Custard and white chocolate are both things that I bloody love so I couldn’t resist trying this recipe from June’s Good Food magazine. They have a surprising taste, sort of like a custard cream, but better. They should keep for up to two weeks in a tin but you’d think there was some sort of biscuit famine going on in my house because they were all gobbled up in a day.

Ingredients (Makes 25-30)

140g/5oz butter

175/6oz caster sugar

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla extract

225g/8oz self-raising flour

85g/3oz custard powder

85g/3oz white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 170⁰C/ Gas Mark 4. Line 2-3 baking trays with baking parchment. Combine the butter and sugar in a food processor until fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.

Sift in the flour and custard powder. Pulse everything together to make a dough.

Roughly chop the chocolate on a wooden board and work into the dough by hand.

Roll the dough into little balls, placed well apart on the baking sheet to allow room for spreading. Flatten the top of the balls lightly with your finger. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack.

I know I say this with everything but these really do go smashing with a cup of tea.