GINGERBREAD

THE ultimate Christmas bake!

This dough made about 30 biscuits and a fairytale house.

This is what you need;

225g unsalted butter
12 tbsp golden syrup 200g caster sugar
100g light muscovado sugar
1tsp all spice
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp milk
900g plain flour
3 tsp bicarbonate soda

This recipe is super easy to make and give quite the result.
This is how you do it;

Preheat the oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4. Put butter, syrup and sugar into a sauce pan, over  medium heat stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the spices, once fully incorporated put your flour and stir vigorously add the milk to make the dough smoother.Leave to cool before you roll out to £1 tick cookies, bake in the middle of the oven  for 9 min, depending on your oven but they burn pretty quick so keep an eye on them.

If you are making a ginger bread house make sure that all the pieces are of equal thickness and make your blueprints before you start. If you want the measurements that I used just email me and I’ll send them over.

For the piping, mix 500g icing sugar, 2 egg whites and 1 tsp lemon juice divide into bowls and add 2 drops of the food colouring of your liking.

This is the perfect past time and if you have kids I can promise that this will keep the occupied for a few hours.
Enjoy x

A little tip, take a straw and make a hole in the ginger bread before baking and they will make fantastic place cards, Tree decorations and Christmas present tags.

Cracking Chocolate Cookies

These are the nicest biscuits ever!!

Makes 30 biccies

This Is What You Need;

100g Dark Chocolate
100g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
50g Muscovado Sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla paste
175g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
5tbsp icing sugar (To roll the biscuits in)

Lets get baking!

Start by melting the chocolate by putting a plate over steaming water, not boiling but simmering. Add the chocolate and the butter into the bowl, once completely melted put to one side so it cools.
Whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla, don’t beat it too much but just until combined, then sift flour and bicarbonate soda and roughly incorporated then add the melted chocolate and butter and mix well. Cover the bowl in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 200 fan, gas mark 6.

In a bowl, add the icing sugar and prepare a baking trey with greaseproof paper and divide the dough into 30 little balls, roll them in icing sugar and bake in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes for extra crunch.

Enjoy x

Double love biscuits

Makes 20 big ones….

Vanilla jammy dodgers just isn’t enough, lets put a chocolate layer on this!

This is what you need:

200g Self-raising flour
100g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla paste
1tsp corn flour
(make this dough again and add 2 heaped tsp of cocoa powder)
150g of raspberry or strawberry jam.

Let’s get baking!
Start by whisking the butter, sugar and vanilla paste, add the egg and whisk until you get an even mixture. Sift the flour and the corn flour (when you do the chocolate dough just add the cocoa powder at this stage).
Knead the dough until combined, don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky, wrap in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, on a lightly floured surface knead the dough adding flour as you go along until the dough is smooth, make sure not to overwork the dough as the butter will melt and you will have to add flour for the rest of the day 🙂
Roll your chocolate dough out to around 0.5cm and use a 7cm cutter, I used a lid, and make 20 circles. Then take your vanilla dough and use the same cutter then place a small heart shaped cutter, or any other shape works too, in the middle.
Bake the biscuits in the middle of the oven for about 17 minutes.

Once they have cooled start putting the biscuits together,  put 1 tsp jam on the chocolate base and then chuck the lid on and voilà, you have a red heat in the middle of an epic biscuit!

This is a definite dunker so get your tea brewing.

Swedish Cinnamon Buns

Tomorrow is the BIG day, international cinnamon bun day
(or maybe it’s only in Sweden but I think it should be international, they deserve it) so I thought I would give you a head start with a recipe that I’ve used for years!
Makes ca 40-50 normal size or 30 massive ones.

If you have time I would recommend proving the dough over night (12 hours) as we are using milk in this recipe and that slows down the proving process.

What you need:

Dough:

5dl Milk
1 x sachet of dry fast action yeast
2dl Sugar
0.5 tsp salt
14dl Self raise flour (if you can get organic or local do it, it makes such a difference) + 2 depending on the wetness
125g butter
**optional – I have 2 tsp of grounded cardamom in the dough,it gives the buns an amazing taste.

You will need 1 egg to brush the buns with after their second proving and then sprinkle them with coarse pearl sugar.

Filling:

120g butter
1,5dl sugar
3 tbsp cinnamon

OR, if you don’t like cinnamon but don’t want to miss out on bun godness

120g room temp butter
1dl sugar
0.5dl vanilla sugar
50 of shaved almonds

NOW, time to get your hands dirty and start mixing these ingredients together.
Start by sifting 13dl of the flour into a bowl put the yeast on one side and the salt on the other, then mix, add the rest of your dry ingredients and butter. Start adding your milk gradually, in 3 parts. As you go along you will see when you need to add the remaining flour but leave 1dl for dusting and kneading. When everything has come together tip it out on a floured surface, roll your sleeves up and start kneading.
After 10-15 min you should have a smooth dough, now if you can’t prove it over night, put the dough in a bowl cover tight with clingfilm but make sure that the dough has enough space to double in size. If you are leaving it over night, same here but leave it in a cool place, this allows the flavors to establish and for the gluten to build up.
When your dough is done proving, punch it down and tip out on a floured surface.
Take a rolling pin and start flatten out the dough, try not to be too rough and let the dough stretch out.
Once your dough is about 5mm thick it’s time for the filling to come in, so evenly distribute butter, sugar and cinnamon or your other fillings.
Then push the down down on the opposite side of where you start rolling.

Start rolling the dough, make sure you roll it tight and don’t leave loads of space in the swirl as the might dry out and fall apart when you eat them 🙂

This is the traditional way of doing it but there are hundreds of ways of making it to a bun.
Cut them up, I normally cut 5-7 cm pieces, then put into cases and cover with clingfilm.

Leave them to rise and double in size, this should take about 1 hour, turn your oven on when you have 30 min left on the proving. Turn your oven to 250 degrees (gas mark 6-7)

If the buns are ready brush with the beaten up egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar, bake the buns in the middle of the oven for about 8-10 min and golden.

If you have made too much and can’t control yourself, this is the perfect time to chuck some in the freezer, when the buns has cooled down a bit just put them in a freezer bag and enjoy on a later date.

Best consumed warm with a cold glass of milk, yummy….