Chocolate chip cookies

It's cute how my wee man can get pretty excited about baking or as he likes to call it "mixing". I have discovered a tried and tested recipe for "Vintage Chocolate Chip Cookies" on the BBC Good Food Website which has gone down extremely well with everyone. Chocolate is a big favourite in this household and I'm not sure how many chocolate chips actually made it into the bowl! So a handy tip when baking with toddlers...have an extra bag of chocolate chips! It also helps to have a grandparent around to help so that you can take the pictures! It's a really simple recipe which really just involves slowly adding everything together:

Ingredients
150g salted butter, softened
80g light brown muscovado sugar
80g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
225g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
200g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Put the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat until creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the mixture and mix in with a wooden spoon. Add the chocolate chips and stir well.

Using a teaspoon, place small mounds of the mixture well apart on the baking trays. Bake in the oven for 8–10 mins until light brown on the edges and still slightly soft in the centre.

Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Then eat! Yummy really!

Baking together

It was always an idea in my head to do certain activities with my child like baking. It was about doing things together while they are growing and learning. I've quickly learnt it's also about being prepared, being okay with the mess and not worrying about things turning out perfectly! It's all about the process and not the outcome! Also I usually end up dragging hubby into the mix to help us out! We had our first baking experience just before Christmas when as part of getting into the Christmas spirit we decided to bake some ginger bread cookies. Never mind that I belatedly found out we did not have any ginger!

I was so pleased with his enthusiasm of getting involved and his obvious enjoyment of adding and mixing all the ingredients together. Of course the best bits is usually at the end when you get to lick the bowl and spoon and it's even better when you are making something chocolatey!

So with three overripe banana's and a wet and rainy Sunday we were ready to make a banana bread. I'm a lot better at making sure all the ingredients are ready to just pour into the bowl. I'm a dab hand at salvaging for broken egg shells. The wee man was excited from the bowls were put out on the table. He's a dab hand now at stirring and licking the bowl. He kept saying no mummy because he wants to do it all himself.

With pecan nuts in the cupboard who knows what we will be baking next?!

Yummy apples

So here are the apples I got from the green grocer to bake hubby's favourite apple pie. I can never be bothered to mess about with the pastry so I always end up making a cake. I got the simple recipe from the silver spoon which as it has an absence of spices I assume rests on the tastiness of the apples. We like it spicy though so we added some. 

Recipe

80g/3oz unsalted butter, softened
300g/11oz self-raising flour
3 eggs
150g/5oz caster sugar
3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a cake tin or mould with butter and dust lightly with flour. Whist together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the butter until thoroughly combined. Sift in the flour mixture,  then add the apples and mix gently. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin or mould and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then turn out, or serve immediately while hot. Served with whipped cream, if you like.

To my flour mixture I added a tsp of cinammon and some nutmeg. Once I added the flour to the mixture it became really thick and I thought how the hell am I going to get apples in here. As usual though I forge ahead and not just add apples but raisins as well! There was loads of mixture and it was interesting getting it all in the tin but...yep...I just forge ahead. I put a tray underneath the tin in the oven just in case there was spillage but surprisingly there was not. It turned out pretty good and tasted even better.

Whipped cream was not optional!

Back to baking

I have been browsing through "Taste Magazine" which I found here one day in Auckland. Actually hubby bought it for me as a huge hint I think as I had been neglecting my cooking these days. Actually this is where the fish recipe below came from. So kids are back at school and work is a bit slow and I find myself with time on my hands these days so its back to baking....well something like that anyway. As the article by Sarah Bowman says

"This slice recipe came from my mother-in-law Gwennie and is one of those magical recipes that takes just minutes to make and everyone loves!"

Bren's Crispies

Recipe

250g butter

1 cup sugar

4tbsp cocoa

2 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

2 cups coconut

Thread coconut, for sprinkling on icing

Chocolate icing

3 cups icing sugar

4tbsp cocoa

1tbsp butter

A little boiling water

Method

1. 
   
   Preheat oven to 180C. Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in a saucepan, then remove from heat.
2. 
   
   Add flour, baking powder and coconut and mix until combined. Press the mixture into a baking paper-lined slice tin and bake for 20 minutes
3. 
   
   Ice while warm and sprinkle with thread coconut. Cool, then slice and store in an airtight container.
4. 
   
   For the icing, mix icing sugar, cocoa and butter with enough boiling water to make a thick smooth icing.

Mine all went pretty much to plan until slicing it out of the cake tin and bits started to fall apart from it. I quickly shoved mine in the fridge....saved!

Hubby's big smile as he was digging into not just one but two slices means it could not have tasted too bad!