COOKBOOKS GALORE

On Wednesday mornings I help with a Toddlers group. We're having a little Christmas party next week so have been trying out some biscuits. My grandson was here testing the results! This recipe came originally from Woman's Weekly, I think. It's in a pull-out about baking with children at Christmas. How many stars you make depends on the size of your star cutter! For the biscuits you need: 370g plain flour, 200g soft butter, 120g caster sugar, 3 egg yolks and a pinch of salt A star biscuit cutter For the decoration: red Smarties, 150g icing sugar, 1 egg white, 6 squares of chocolate to melt , red and white sugar sprinkles In a bowl or mixer beat the butter, sugar and egg yolks till it's creamy. Add the salt and flour and mix together. Bring together into a ball, cover in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 30 mins. Preheat oven 160C/gas3                                  Cover a baking tray wit...

When 2 of my grandsons, aged 13 and 16 came to visit, to keep them off their x-boxes, I baked with them! We made these chocolate biscuits, and they were a great hit. Sadly there weren't any left to take home to their brother, so next time we'll have to make double the amount! Preheat oven 190C/gas5                Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. you need: 125g butter, 125g caster sugar, 50g dark brown sugar, 1 beaten egg, 1/2 tspn vanilla extract, 100g plain flour, 25g cocoa powder, 75g oats, 1/2tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn bicarb, 125g chopped hazelnuts and 25g demerara sugar Beat the butter and caster and dark brown sugars together till nice and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb. and add to the batter. Stir in the nuts. Take tspns of the mixture and roll into about 30 balls. Put the demerara sugar on a plate and roll the balls in it. Put the biscuits about 5cm...

I love spicy cakes, so I've been trying a few recipes and liked this one the best. The recipe uses 'speculoos' or 'speculaas' biscuits, the spicy biscuits the Dutch eat on St Nicholas Day, December 6th. These were easy to find in France, but not here. I used 'Biscoff' brand, which have almost the same taste [and you can also get in a jar and is delicious as a cake filling]. Aldi and Lidl both have spicy biscuits which would work just as well. You also need some apples and vanilla yoghurt. Preheat oven 200C/gas6  Grease a 20cm square cake tin. Using a food processor [or a plastic bag and a rolling pin!] blitz 50g of biscuits into fine crumbs. In a bowl break 2 eggs and whisk, then add 2 tbspn of runny honey and beat. Stir in 1 small pot of vanilla yoghurt and the biscuit crumbs. Add 200g of plain flour to which you've added a tspn of baking powder. Mix together then add 3 tbspn of vegetable oil and mix well. Peel and core 2 eating apples and chop in...

Ever since Paul Hollywood made some biscotti on GBBO, I've wanted to make some. I found a couple of recipes on line that I liked, so I took ideas from them and made some chocolate ones. Also had a packet of hazelnuts in the cupboard that needed using, so added those to the mix. Preheat oven 180c/gas4          Line 2 baking trays with silicone or baking parchment I used a food processor  - put in 320g plain flour, 30g cocoa, 1 tspn bicarbonate of soda, 160g chocolate chunks, milk or plain, 250g hazelnuts and 1 tspn salt and pulse till the chocolate and hazelnuts are pea size. Beat 4 large eggs and 200g caster sugar till fluffy then add the flour mixture and fold in - or use a food mixer on low speed. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and divide into 3. Shape each into a 45cm log. Put onto the baking trays and flatten gently. Brush the tops with egg wash made from a beaten egg white and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 20-25mins then c...

Following on from the Madeira cake from week 1 of the GBBO, I decided to make some biscuits from week 2. I'm not a fan of biscotti, or making fancy biscuit  holders, so decided to have a go at Paul's Artlettes. I cheated  and used ready made butter puff pastry and was pleased with the results. You'll find Paul's recipe  here . The whirls aren't as good as his, but you could taste the cinnamon, and they were nice and crisp, and they had a good snap!! After making these I decided that I hadn't put enough cinnamon and sugar in them so made them again with bought butter puff pastry. My second attempt was much better; they're not as oval, but the spiral filling is better. Honey Biscuits I also made some honey biscuits as I was given a local jar of honey to try. These are orange and walnut flavoured biscuits which are dipped in honey to glaze. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. In a bowl...

This recipe is one of my grandsons' favourites. They love to help make it as it's so easy. The magic bit happens in the oven, as the layers meld together. Basically it's a biscuit layer, a nut layer, a chocolate layer and over these is poured a tin of condensed milk - so no calories then! It's not for the dieters, but great in small pieces as a treat. The nuts are healthy! I've changed the ingredients so many times that I've forgotten what the original ones were. My Dutch friend gave me the recipe and the speculoos biscuits for the base, but any spicy biscuit will do, or plain ones if you prefer. You need a greased and lined 20cm square cake tin. Preheat oven 190C/gas5. Break up 200g of spicy biscuits, but not into crumbs, leave them in small pieces. Add 80g of melted butter and mix together. Press this mixture into the bottom of the tin and press down well  - I use the back of a large spoon. Chop 100g nuts - mixed or one type - you...

This recipe is a speciality of the region we lived in in France, Poitou Charentes. You can find them in the region's supermarkets and they can be small, as these are, or be one large biscuit. They're not really biscuits, more of a biscake! Whatever you call them, they're delicious. This is the traditional recipe from a local baker. Beat together 250g unsalted butter and 250g of sugar till light and creamy. Add a beaten egg and mix together then fold in 500g plain flour with 1 tspn baking powder and 1 tspn salt added and mix together till you get a ball. If you need it, add a few drops of water. It's easier to use a mixer. Wrap the ball in clingfilm and put in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight, to firm up the dough. Preheat oven hot - 210C/gas7 Cover 2 baking sheets with baking parchment or silicone sheets. Take the dough out of the fridge and bring to room temperature.  Roll out dough and using a 7cm fluted cutter, cut out the biscuits and ...

My husband loves biscuits, so as it was pouring with rain and I felt like baking something, I decided to make some for him. What to make? I had half a tin of Carnation caramel in the fridge left over from a cake recipe my daughter tried, so thought I'd use some of this - not much, as it's so sweet. I like a biscuit with a crunchy outside but a soft centre, so decided to use oats and some plain chocolate to get the sort of biscuit I wanted. A couple of tablespoons of caramel would give it extra flavour, and add to the softish centre. I found plenty of oat biscuit recipes on the net, but couldn't find just what I wanted, so I used a basic oat recipe and added my own tweaks to it. I made 15 chocolate oaties from this recipe. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 100g butter, 100g soft brown sugar and 2 tbspns of Carnation caramel - spoon these into a pan and melt gently till all the sugar and butter have dissolved. 100g sr flour, 100g oats and 1/2 tspn of bicarbonate of soda - put t...

This is such an easy recipe, but I like the holly decoration on the top. It's a bit fiddly to do, but I think they look Christmassy and a bit different from other Christmas biscuits. The basic biscuit recipe is one I've had for years, and I saw the holly and berries idea in a baker's shop window. I went in and bought some bread and asked about the holly biscuits and the kind lady explained how they were done. So easy, and adaptable to other designs and cutters. The recipe makes about 12 biscuits. 75g butter 50g icing sugar grated rind of a lemon 1 egg yolk 175g plain flour pinch of salt Decoration: 2 egg yolks red and green food colouring Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Lightly grease 2 baking trays. Beat the butter, sugar and zest together till fluffy; beat in the egg yolk and add the flour and salt. Mix to a smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for about half and hour. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 3mm thick, then using a 6cm...

We have a houseful for Christmas this year, including 2 lovely people from Poland, so thought I'd try out a few family biscuit recipes from the French friend I mentioned recently. The first one is spiced Christmas trees. G's paternal family live in Alsace, so she's grown up with the lovely spicy biscuits and bakes they make at Christmas. I'm going to try out a few and have my grandsons help me, and then they can choose their favourites [as they're going to be here for Christmas anyway]. My daughter and dog came up for the weekend, so we roped her into helping us. She loves decorating cakes and biscuits, so she helped the boys with their trees, and the photo is of her creations. The boys didn't want their efforts put on here, so they ate them! I expect every family in Alsace has their own recipe for Christmas biscuits, but this is the translated Ruff family one, but the decoration is the boys' idea - they wanted garlands on the trees and baubles! 100g b...

On Sunday May 19th it's World Baking Day and there's some great baking recipes to try. Just found it by chance. http://worldbakingday.com/#/en-gb/recipes I've mentioned before, that from time to time I bake with one of my grandsons. For some reason he really loves apricots, and he wanted to bake something using them. In a very old 'Blue Peter' activity book, from when my children were young, we found a recipe for these biscuits. They're quirky and T. loved making them, as they had apricots on them. We made 12 biscuits, and T went home with the recipe [and most of the biscuits!] to make them with his Mum. 150g plain flour 7g [about 21/2 tspns] vanilla sugar or 1 packet [or you could use caster sugar and some vanilla extract] pinch salt 150g cornflour 150g butter - cold and cut into pieces 250g tin of apricots in syrup 75g icing sugar 1 tspn or so of lemon juice Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Grease a baking tray. Mix the 2 flours, vanilla sugar and sal...

These were mentioned recently on the GBBO, so I thought I'd find out more about them. They're made on the Isle of Anglesey and are a traditional biscuit really, not a cake. They're served sprinkled with sugar and even with cream and jam, like a scone. The bit I liked was that a scallop shell is pressed into the top to give it a shell-like pattern. Nowadays, a lot of the Aberffraw cakes have the pattern put on with a knife. I have a bag of scallop shells, brought back from France so I used a genuine one to make my pattern. The recipe is a 3.2.1  - quite common for biscuits. This means 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part sugar. 175g flour 110g butter 55g caster sugar a little milk more caster sugar for sprinkling over Preheat oven 190C/gas5. Grease a baking sheet. I used a processor to make my dough. Put flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter. Bind together with a litle milk to make a soft dough. Roll out and cut out circles. I used a 7cm cutter an...

I've been doing some more baking with my grandson, and we made these treats. He loves fudge! They looked so moreish we had to try them. I know they're calorific, but as a treat...! The recipe comes from a magazine supplement on biscuits. 50g flaked almonds and a few for the top 75g fudge, chopped 200g plain flour 1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda 125g butter 125g light muscovado sugar 1 egg 1 tspn vanilla essence Preheat oven 180c/gas 4 Line a baking sheet with parchment. Pur flour and bicarb. in a bowl and rub in butter till breadcrumbs. Stir in the almonds, fudge and sugar and mix together. Whisk egg and vanilla and add to the fudge mixture and mix till blended. Put large tbspns of mixture on sheet, leaving spaces between them. Put a flaked almond on top. Bake for 12-15 mins. Leave on tray for 10 mins then put onto a wire rack. They really are moreish, but very sweet. You could taste the fudge, but I thought it would have some texture - maybe I chopped it too sma...

My younger daughter is coming today, so I thought I'd make her some biscuits with her favourite flavour, orange. I love cinnamon, so this seemed the perfect one to try. The recipe comes from a free booklet in a 'Woman's Weekly' magazine a few years back, but I've changed it slightly to give the thins a more orange flavour. Makes about 30 thins 225g butter 140g caster sugar grated zest of an orange 1 egg yolk 4 tspns orange juice 280g plain flour 2 tspn cinnamon pinch salt Put the butter, sugar and orange rind in a bowl and beat till creamy. Beat in the egg yolk and 2 tspns of the orange juice. Add the salt to the flour and then stir into the mixture till it's all nicely blended. Make into a ball, wrap in film and chill for about an hour. Take it out, unwrap and roll dough out between 2 sheets of baking parchment  into a 30 cm square. Take off top sheet and brush the dough with the rest of the orange juice and sprinkle over the cinnamon. Lightly ...

Apparently today is National Nutella day. I love any combination of chocolate and hazelnuts, so I decided to make a really easy biscuit that I've made many times for my children and grandchildren. Don't know where the original recipe came from - it's in my handwritten notebook. I've made them with jam and with lemon curd, as well as with Nutella. It makes about 18 biscuits. 175g butter 175g caster sugar 1 egg 175g plain flour 125g plain flour Nutella Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper. Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 Beat the butter and sugar together using a mixer till nice and fluffy. Beat in the egg then add the flours, a bit at a time. Leave the dough for about an hour to rest. Take out tbspns of the mixture, roll into a ball then flatten on the baking sheet. Press your thumb in the top to make a hole. Fill the hole with Nutella. Make sure you space the biscuits out on the baking sheet, because they spread. Bake for about 12 mins. Cool on a wi...

I had some marzipan left over from Christmas so decided to make some of these biscuits. They're fairly easy to make, have few ingredients and are delicious [but not healthy!]. The recipe is one I've used many times, and was in a free booklet that came with a Prima magazine, I think. The recipe makes about 10 biscuits. 250g butter 100g marzipan 100g demerara sugar + little extra for sprinkling on top 250g plain flour Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Grease a baking sheet. In a bowl, cream the butter using a mixer with a doughhook [I have a hand mixer which came with dough hooks, so I use this]. Mix in the marzipan and gradually add the sugar and flour, kneading the mixture well. Make the dough into a roll and put in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Then roll the dough out till it's about 15mm thick, then cut it into strips 15mm x 6 cm and put these back into the fridge for 30 mins. Put the biscuits onto your baking sheet. Makes grooves in each one using a fork, and sprin...

I haven't been well, so not posted on here for a while, but I have been baking. My dil is German and gave me the recipes for her Christmas biscuits and I made a selection of them. This is the recipe for the melt-in-the-mouth vanilla crescents which are on the top layer of the cake stand. Preheat oven 175C and grease 2 baking sheets. 200g flour 80g caster sugar 175g butter 2 egg yolks 100g ground almonds 1 tspn vanilla essence 6 tbspn vanilla sugar Mix the flour, sugar, butter and egg yolks together then add the ground almonds and the vanilla esence. Bring the mixture together with your hands and cut in into 4. Roll out each quarter and put in the fridge for 1/2 and hour. Cut the dough into small strips then loop each strip into a crescent. Bake for 10 mins till light brown then roll in the vanilla sugar. Cool on a wire rack. Christmas stars Preheat oven 100C then 75C. Grease a baking tray lined with parchment paper. 3 egg whites 250...

These biscuits are a French recipe given to me by my neighbour when we lived there. Not sure why they're called 'English' biscuits! My grandsons are coming today and they love these. My neighbour always uses half plain flour and half potato flour, but as I couldn't find any potato flour, I used all plain flour. Also the recipe uses some cooking chocolate as well as some with praline in it. I used good milk chocolate instead of the cooking chocolate. They seem to have a better selection of good cooking chocolate in France.  The recipe makes about 30 biscuits 4 eggs, separated pinch of salt 100g caster sugar 1 lemon 75g potato flour 75g plain flour 100g cooking chocolate 100g chocolate with praline  Preheat oven 200C/gas 6/400F Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl with the salt and sugar till they whiten. Wash the lemon, grate its zest, then juice it. Add the juice and zest to the egg yolks. Beat the egg whites till firm and ...

My Mum used to make these for my children when they were little. Found the recipe the other day, so thought I'd make some for the biscuit tin. She used to make 15 biscuits out of the mixture, I only made 12! 125g sr flour 125g butter [softened] 125g caster sugar 1 tbspn cocoa 90g oats 2 tbspns coffee essence [like Camp] Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas 4 Put the flour, cocoa and sugar in a bowl, then rub in the butter. Add the oats and the coffee essence and mix it all together into a ball. Make small balls of the dough and put them on a greased baking tray. I use a silicone sheet. Flatten the balls a bit then bake them for 15 mins. Sometimes Mum used to roll them in extra oats, but I prefer them like this.

I've read about the name of these cookies, how at the tollbooths on the roads people would stop and buy a drink and a cookie. This version comes from Hannah Miles' new book 'The big book of cakes and cookies' which has 365 recipes for new cakes and well-loved favourites. Hannah was a finalist in Masterchef 2007, and has a lovely blog which is on my list of favourite blogs - Hannah's country kitchen. Here's the recipe: 125g butter 350g plain flour 1/2 tspn bicarb. 2 tspns cinnamon 100g caster sugar 100g soft brown sugar 1 tbspn golden syrup 1 large egg, beaten 100g chocolate chips 100g chopped walnuts Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Makes 20 cookies Sieve flour, soda and cinnamon into a bowl. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan. Add the choc. chips and walnuts and egg to the flour mixture and then add the butter mixture. Mix it all together with a wooden spoon. Divide the dough into walnut sized pieces and put onto greased baking trays. Mak...