Scones

I found some buttermilk hidden in the back of the fridge, so decided this was the time to try the buttermilk scones from Nigella's 'Kitchen'. They're quite generous, like the lady herself! You can find the recipe here.
They taste really good; a keeper I think.
Next time I'll add some dried fruit - cranberries, sour cherries, chopped dried apples or pears. Wonder what they'd taste like with chocolate pieces?!

Chocolate nutty clusters

Every month Choclette or Chele of We should Cocoa have a challenge, to bake something using chocolate and one other ingredient which they take turns to choose. This month it's Chele's choice, and she's chosen something left over in the cupboard after Christmas. Here's the link to her blog .

I had a lot of nuts left over so decided to make something a bit different; it's a recipe from my friend Liz.

Chocolate nutty clusters

175g white chocolate
100g digestive biscuits
100g nuts, chopped
175g dark chocolate

That's all you need and it's very easy to do.
Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper.
Break the white chocolate into bits and melt over a bowl of hot water or in the microwave.
Break the biscuits into pieces and add to the melted chocolate with the chopped nuts. Put spoonfuls of this onto the baking sheet. Put into the fridge.
Melt the dark chocolate and when cool dip the clusters in it. Put them back onto the baking sheet and back in the fridge to set.
I used brazil nuts, but you could use macadamia nuts, hazelnuts - whatever you fancy. Liz's recipe said it made about 30, but I only made 15!

                                                   

Spicy oat cookies

Thought I'd make some cookies for a change and found this recipe in my folder. They're part of my new 'healthy eating' - well oats are healthy aren't they? Forget about the butter and syrup!

It makes about 18 cookies.

115g butter
115g caster sugar
2 tbspn golden syrup
1egg
115g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn each of cinnamon and mixed spice
115g oats

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4

Cream the butter and sugar together till it's nice and fluffy. Add the syrup and the egg and beat together.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and spices and then the oats.

Grease a couple of baking sheets and put spoonfuls of the mixture on the sheets; make sure you leave a space between each one as they spread.

Bake for about 15 mins till golden and just firm when you touch them. Leave them to cool on a wire tray.

Coffee streusel cake

A very Happy New Year.

I wanted to make a different sort of cake, so searched through my books till I found this recipe in an old book of world cookery belonging to my Mum. It's of German origin.

Preheat oven 160C/gas3
Grease and line a 20cm square tin.

115g butter
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
175g sr flour
4 tbspn milk
1 tbspn instant coffee dissolved in a tbspn boiling water

Streusel:
85g walnut pieces
1 level tspn coffee granules
115g soft brown sugar
2 tbspn plain flour
30g butter [melted]

Beat the butter and sugar together till nice and creamy.
Add the eggs and beat again.
Fold in the flour, milk and coffee.
Spread half of this mixture into the tin.
Put the streusel ingredients into a blender [ except butter] and make into a fine powder. Add the butter and give it all a quick whizz.
Sprinkle half of this on top of the cake mixture and top with the rest of the cake mixture,
Then sprinkle the remaining streusel on top.

Bake for about an hour in the middle of the oven. Leave to cool in the tin.

I changed the recipe by adding the coffee into the cake mixture - it was meant to be added to icing sugar to be drizzled over the cooked cake. I felt that having the streusel on top was enough. Also I didn't blend the streusel finely - I wanted some texture left, so kept it somewhat chunky.