All posts tagged recipes

Spooky Spider Sandwich Cookies

Something strange happened today. A plate of perfectly innocuous Banoffee Nutella Sandwich Cookies …

… turned into this …

Aaaargh!

Run!

Spooky Spider Sandwich Cookies

8 oz plain flour
6 oz light muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
4 1/2 oz mashed banana (1 medium/large ripe banana)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with parchment.

Mix all the ingredients together. The dough will be very sticky. Cover the bowl it’s in with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Scrape out the dough onto a well-floured surface. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into circles with a 2 1/4 inch diameter cutter.

Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking tray. The cookies puff but don’t spread much, so it’s okay to put 10 to 15 cookies on a tray (assuming your trays are the same size as mine, ha!)

Bake for 7 mins, then remove to a wire rack to cool.

When cool, sandwich 2 cookies together with Nutella. Add Matchmakers for legs and Skittles for eyes to magically turn the cookies into spiders (use Nutella to glue the eyes into place).

Eat if you dare …

8 Comments

by amerrierworld on October 29, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in biscuits and cookies, chocolate

Tagged baking, cookies, cooking, food, recipes

Posted by amerrierworld on October 29, 2012

https://amerrierworld.com/2012/10/29/spooky-spider-sandwich-cookies/

Roald Dahl’s Treacle Toffee (Not)

I didn’t mean to make fudge this morning. To be honest, I never mean to make fudge. That way, I can’t be disappointed when I invariably fail to make fudge. For starters, I never manage to dissolve all of the sugar before the mixture begins to boil. I think I have the wrong sort of sugar. That’s it – it must be the sugar. I have the sort that won’t dissolve. It’s also the sort that loves to burn on the bottom of the pan well before the temperature reaches anything approaching that elusive soft ball stage.

So, how on earth did I end up making fudge this morning? Well, the thing is, I didn’t mean to make it. I was trying to make toffee instead. The fudge was an accident – a failure to make toffee.

I wasn’t feeling particularly confident about my ability to make toffee either, but M has been reading a book about Roald Dahl and found a recipe for toffee there. On page 82, to be precise. Roald Dahl said this toffee was “dashed good”, so naturally M wanted to try it. I did warn her about sugar crystallization, separation and burning but she didn’t really ‘get’ my sugar phobia.

As it turned out, the ‘recipe’ was simply a list of ingredients with a note that this dashing good toffee cost 1/10d to make. I hadn’t reckoned on undertaking a Great British Bake Off technical challenge so early in the day. The only things missing were Sue Perkins and the terrifying words, “On your marks, get set … bake!”

It all went well for a very short time. The sides of the pan weren’t sticky with undissolved crystals, the mixture hadn’t seized and I hadn’t burned my tongue or fingernails (yes, it’s possible to scorch your fingernails when you mistakenly think it’s a good idea to poke a bit of boiling caramel around the end of a spatula with them).

And then of course, it all unfolded with tedious inevitability. The mixture bubbled and began to burn on the bottom of the saucepan. I whipped it off the heat, stirred furiously and muttered all kinds of sorcerous curses. One more wasted batch of sugar destined for the sink … but not quite. My sugar thermometer was fairly sure we’d nearly reached the soft ball stage and so, in a final flourish of indifference to the science of sugar, I returned the pan to the heat and decided to go for fudge. Well, a burnt sort of treacle toffee sort of fudge, anyway.

And what do you know – it turned out to be the best treacle toffee fudge that I’ve ever made. Fudged fudge. Or, as M writes:

Today we made some toffee (not). Well it was supposed to be toffee but it came out as fudge.

Roald Dahl’s Treacle Toffee (Not)

4 Comments

by amerrierworld on October 20, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in confectionary

Tagged baking, candy, cooking, food, recipes

Posted by amerrierworld on October 20, 2012

https://amerrierworld.com/2012/10/20/roald-dahls-treacle-toffee-not/

Apple Pie Brunch Bars

September – back to school, a return of routines, darkening evenings and the buttoning of coats against an encroaching winter coldness.

Life sometimes takes unexpected turns and catches us by surprise. When I leafed through the first copy of a local magazine for parents back in June, I certainly had no inkling that my own writing would appear on these pages only three months later. But it was a time of high energy and I was planning to take on the world. Offering to write a food article for publication seemed to be the obvious course of action.

Kirsten, editor of Families North Devon and Exeter, took my enthusiasm in her stride and together we discussed ideas for a back-to-school article on healthy packed lunch boxes. Feeling slightly daunted by what I had taken on in a moment of reckless over-confidence, I ummed and aahed and dragged my heels for a while before taking up the virtual pen of Microsoft Word.

I wanted to feature a recipe for a lunchbox treat that could easily be tackled by both children and their parents. I had the notion that baking together in this way would inspire enthusiasm for the whole dreary business of daily sandwich-wrapping (something, I have to confess, that I have largely avoided by stubbornly insisting that all three of my children have school dinners every day).

My recipe-testers were keen to help out with this more practical side of writing the article, and so these Apple Pie Brunch Bars were born (with grateful thanks to Jon for joining me in a name-brainstorming session).

The article itself appeared in the September/October 2012 edition of the Families North Devon and Exeter Magazine. It is available online on the Families website, and also here as a pdf:

familiesmagazine

Apple Pie Brunch Bars

These Apple Pie Brunch Bars are easy to make with children, travel well, can be stored for several days and provide a sweet and delicious lunchbox treat without any added extras (you know exactly what goes into them!).

2 apples
1 tbsp lemon juice
310g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
113g butter
140g light muscovado sugar
200g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, and line a 33cm x 23cm baking tray with baking parchment.

Peel, core and dice the apples, then mix them with the lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a mixing bowl and whisk them to incorporate fully. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave.

Put the sugars in a large mixing bowl and add the melted butter. Beat well with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Use a metal spoon to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add the apples and stir just until evenly mixed.

Spread the batter into the prepared baking tray and bake for 25 minutes until golden and the top springs back when pressed lightly.

Leave to cool in the tray for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool fully before cutting into bars.

1 Comment

by amerrierworld on September 19, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in fruit, out and about, traybakes and slices

Tagged baking, cooking, food, recipes

Posted by amerrierworld on September 19, 2012

https://amerrierworld.com/2012/09/19/apple-pie-brunch-bars/

The Wooden Spoon Adventures

Let’s all sing …

Happy 5th Blogiversary to A Merrier World,
Happy 5th Blogiversary …

Hmmm. Maybe not. It doesn’t quite scan, does it?

But it really is my blog’s 5th birthday (despite the fact that the Choc Chip Cookie Brownie Cake above has seven candles. I was never very good with numbers).

Five years ago today, I clicked ‘publish’ for the first time and held my breath as my chocolate brownie tentatively announced my new, official status of ‘food blogger.’ Since that day, I have discovered friendships among an online crowd of passionate food bloggers and bakers, I have entertained Rose Levy Beranbaum and her assistant, Woody Woolston at home and abroad, and even conjured up a surprise at Dart’s Farm for two of my most loyal readers over the years, Melinda and Jeannette. My Great Pumpkin Cake seems to have spread far and wide across the internet whilst my Rainbow Cake and Unicorns post has inspired other Mums looking for party ideas for their young children. And WordPress tells me that this is my 150th post (gosh, how did that happen? A nice round, significant number like that? 😉 )

To celebrate this milestone (and five years is not so very short a time in terms of internet history), I’m sending a wooden spoon off into the big wide world to stir up some trouble.

Here’s the plan …

A few weeks ago, I snail-mailed a wooden spoon to one of my first-ever blog readers, Melinda. She had very generously agreed to come out of blogging retirement to write a post on her own blog about the adventures this wooden spoon would have with her when she used it to bake a tasty, local treat. She had also agreed to hound down, pester, cajole or bribe another willing food blogger to accept this wooden spoon afterwards and to take it on a further baking spree.

True to her word (for which I will be forever grateful), Melinda has introduced my wooden spoon to the delights of a Lemon Blueberry Buckle, nostalgically reminiscent of her roots in Oregon. She has also coined a new word – spoonee. Thank you, Melinda, for being such a wonderful first spoonee! Next stop, Portland …

And so the wooden spoon’s adventures will hopefully continue, passing from baker to baker around the globe and whipping up a storm of regional specialities.

If all goes well, I will chart the Wooden Spoon’s Adventures here on A Merrier World by building up a page of links to all the delicious recipes the spoon has met on its culinary travels.

As for the lavishly-named, seven-candled Choc Chip Cookie Brownie Cake … here’s the recipe as a special birthday present from me to A Merrier World and its readers 🙂 .

Choc Chip Cookie Brownie Cake

Cookie Base
3 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
2 1/2 oz light muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium egg
5 oz plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
5 oz chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl.

Gradually beat in the vanilla and egg.

Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread the cookie dough in the base of a 9″ springform pan. Put in the fridge while making the brownie batter.

Brownie
3 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
5 1/2 oz plain chocolate
4 oz butter
1/4 tsp coffee granules
5 oz caster sugar
2 oz light muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir in the coffee granules.

Turn off the heat and whisk in the caster and muscovado sugars until completely combined.

Take the bowl off the pan of hot water and whisk in 1 egg, the egg yolk and vanilla.

Whisk in the second egg, but be careful not to overbeat at this stage.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the top and fold in with a spatula.

Pour the brownie batter over the chilled cookie base.

Bake for 25 minutes until the brownie is just setting. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

28 Comments

by amerrierworld on August 9, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in biscuits and cookies, cakes, chocolate, out and about, puddings, traybakes and slices

Tagged baking, cake, chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, recipes

Posted by amerrierworld on August 9, 2012

https://amerrierworld.com/2012/08/09/the-wooden-spoon-adventures/

The Hundred and Forty-Ninth Post Soup

That’s an unusual name for a soup.

It’s short for … Vegetable and Lentil Soup.

Oh. What’s with the hundred and forty-ninth thing, then?

This is my 149th post on A Merrier World.

Is that significant?

It will be on Thursday.

Oh. I still don’t get it.

Nevermind. It’s a tasty soup. Even M liked it.

And T …?

Err. No. It’s hard to disguise soup as a fish finger.

The Hundred and Forty-Ninth Post Soup (aka Vegetable and Lentil Soup)

1 large onion, chopped
6 to 7 medium carrots, chopped
5 to 6 medium potatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, squashed
1 1/4 litres vegetable stock
bay leaf
7 oz cooked green lentils
freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Fry the onion in a large casserole pot until softened.

Add the carrots, potatoes and garlic. Cook gently over low heat for 5 minutes.

Pour in the vegetable stock and add the bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or so until the vegetables are tender.

Stir in the cooked lentils and remove the bay leaf.

Blitz to a smooth liquid with a handheld food processor.

Serve with freshly-baked bread rolls (ours used a 2 lb mix of strong white flour, white spelt flour, Doves Farm heritage flour, plain wholemeal flour, barley flour and medium oatmeal, plus one sachet of yeast, a palmful of salt and 1 1/4 pints of water … just in case anyone’s wondering).