Oreos and milk; how American can you get?
Of course as a maker and baker of a lot of kid’s cakes I do love Oreos for their ability to immitate soil once whizzed up in a food processor.
Homemade Oreos
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Oreos and milk; how American can you get?
Of course as a maker and baker of a lot of kid’s cakes I do love Oreos for their ability to immitate soil once whizzed up in a food processor.
I’ve long hankered after making one of those impressive ombre cakes, but if I’m honest the thought of making there different coloured icings and then piping them onto a cake made me feel all tired and in need of a sit down. I’m not a ‘fancy’ baker. I like to think this is a choice, that I could make these amazing creations worthy of patisserie school, but frankly, I’m kidding myself. It’s not my style. I like rustic (aka a bit messy) so this cake is a departure for me. It’s about as un-messy as I get. I hope you like it. I especially hope you like the nifty ruler trick for smoothing the icing.
So Lawrence could barely sit unaided until recently and now all of a sudden it’s action stations. Yesterday I rescued 2 remote controls, a Lego helicopter, a calculator, two mobile phones, a box of tissues, a nappy (unused), another baby, 3 plastic Octonaut toys, a laptop, a Hot Wheels track, a whisk, a rolling pin, 2 wooden spoons and some post from Lawrence. He’s one of ‘those’ babies. He’s wonderfully exhausting.
So what with all this racing about, I need Jaffa Cakes. Homemade ones. With a LOT of dark chocolate. Here we go…
Failure can be a good thing. Take London for example. The first time I took a solo trip to London it was a disaster.
In 1999 I was a fresher at Liverpool University, studying for a degree in English Language & Literature. One day I bought a copy of Vogue. Now given I was a chunky size 14 this was ill advised. However this copy did feature a writing competition. Which I of course, being full of arrogant youthfulness, entered.
Months later I received a very proper looking embossed letter telling me I hadn’t won, but I was a runner up. How exciting! Imagine! A girl from Leicester, via Liverpool, being invited to London! All the L’s and all the exclamations. At this point I should have been happy in my triumph, left it there and declined. But I didn’t.
I bought a pashmina. Because that’s what I imagined women in London who were invited to Vogue House might wear. It was beige. I also bought a pair of pedal pushers in a kind of gold colour. They fit badly and made my already reasonable sized backside look gargantuan. I also wore a white loose fitting peasant style T shirt. And heels. A pair of heels that barely fit, were again beige, and hurt considerably. Oh and a beige handbag that didn’t fit much in. Not an umbrella for instance.
But wait! The horror wasn’t complete! I decided, the night before I caught the train to London, from my teenage bedroom in Leicester, to fake tan my whole body.
Reader, I don’t think I need to tell you how bad I looked. A beige monstrosity, streaked in orange. It rained in London, as it often does, and I, being a girl from up North, had no idea that carrying an umbrella in the heat of the capital’s summer might be a good idea. I arrived; wet, streaked, stressed and beige.
I managed to sit through the lunch, in a panelled board room, with Alexandra Shulman (Editor), Miranda Sawyer (Journo) and Nick Hornby (Author), the latter whose work I bought days before to swot up on.
Shulman and I didn’t speak. I imagine she was concerned the beige horror might be a contagious disease. Sawyer chatted kindly, though clearly not engaged in anything a 19 year old student might have to say. (I don’t blame her). Nick was lovely. So interested in everyone. A real gent.
I took the Midland Mainline back to Leicester on the to pick up my Fiat Panda, feeling London was so very unattainable to me. I had embarrassed myself and done a disservice to every girl from the Midlands trying desperately to reinvent herself.
Just 3 years later I moved to London, again, solo. And it was anything but a disaster. I loved it. And I never wore a beige pashmina again. Or gold pedal pushers. (The same can’t be said for my love affair with ‘Holiday Skin’ fake tan).
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show how to make these very easy white chocolate mousse eggs. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
One year ago: Florentine quiche and Flourless chocolate cake and Cadbury Creme Mini Egg chocolate flapjackand School fair rocky road
Two year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs
Three years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits
Four years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread
White chocolate mousse eggs with lemon curd yolks
Makes about 9 though depends on the size of your chocolate eggs
Ingredients:
For the curd:
For the mousse:
To finish:
NB: These hollow eggs must be kept in the fridge until serving. It is advised not to serve raw eggs to young children, pregnant women or the elderly.
These are not easy to make.
They involve a lot of stages.
They require you to boil sugar.
They ask you to hunt out a sugar thermometer.
They get through almost a kilogram of chocolate.
You also need a stand mixer.
So really, all in all, I’m trying to manage your expectations. It’s not that I don’t want you to make them. I do. These are good. Oh my, they are GOOD. You could make yourself sick eating the whole lot and still want to go back for more. However, they’re a bit of a pain in the backside.
But like my good friend Kitty says about women – all the best ones are a bit of a pain in the backside. In my opinion, the same applies to chocolate-peanut snacks.
P.S. Please, please, please don’t sub the dry roasted peanuts for salted peanuts, or, heaven forbid, unsalted peanuts. They need to be dry roasted. I know it seems wrong, but just trust me on this one.
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show how to make these homemade Snickers. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
One year ago: Florentine quiche and Flourless chocolate cake and Cadbury Creme Mini Egg chocolate flapjackand School fair rocky road
Two year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs
Three years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits
Four years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread
Homemade Snickers
Ingredients:
For the chocolate layers:
For the nougat:
For the caramel
Oil a tray size 30 x 40cm (ish) with a little olive oil and cut a piece of non-stick baking parchment to fit the bottom. Melt half the milk chocolate with 1 tbsp olive oil in the microwave until molten. Tip into the tray and level out by tapping the tin on the work surface. Leave to set in the fridge.
Once the chocolate has set, make the nougat by placing the granulated sugar, honey, liquid glucose and 230mls cold water into a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and boil until it reaches 150°C (use a sugar thermometer).
Whisk the egg whites in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment until you achieve soft peaks, then when the sugar thermometer is at 160°C slowly pour the boiling sugar into the egg white mixture with the whisk rotating at a medium speed. Try and aim the sugar at the egg whites rather than at the edge of the bowl.
Let the mixer whisk for about 3 – 4 minutes at a high speed until the mixture is very thick, starts to pull away from the side of the bowl and the stand mixer feels like it might be struggling. Stop the mixer then add the peanut butter and stir with a spatula or spoon then tip onto the chocolate layer. Straight away, tip the dry roasted peanuts over the top evenly and then press down with a piece of oiled non-stick baking parchment. Leave to set.
Make the caramel by heating the cream in a pan until boiling point. At the same time heat the golden syrup and the granulated sugar in a large pan until 155°C (use a jam thermometer), then remove from the heat and stir in the just boiled cream with a wooden spoon. Be careful as it can spit. Leave off the heat for 5 minutes. Then put back on the hob and heat until 127°C. Once this temperature is achieved remove from the heat and stir in the butter – be careful as it bubbles up a fair amount. Leave to cool in the pan for 20 minutes.
When cool but still spreadable, pour over the peanut layer of the snickers bar and allow to set in the fridge. Use a knife to eek it over the peanut layer if you need to. When the caramel has set (give it at least an hour) melt the other half of the chocolate with 1 tbsp oil (as before) and pour over the caramel layer. Leave to set.
Once completely set use a knife to cut into squares/bars. You can dip the knife into hot water before cutting to achieve cleaner cuts.
Mother’s Day is looming. This recipe isn’t a Mother’s Day suggestion. Not that these cookies aren’t delicious and a wonderful gift to bestow on any well behaved mother, but well, they’re not quite formal enough for my liking. I think Mother’s Day needs something a little more old fashioned and restrained.
So, Mother’s Day gifts. I have been contemplating buying some frames, filling them with prints of the children and wrapping them in pretty tissue paper for the family matriarchs. But then it occurred to me that this could well be the worst kind of self absorption. Obviously I would never frame a picture of myself and bestow it to a family member. That would make me seem rather in love with my own reflection, a little bit of a horror frankly. But giving photos of my offspring seems okay, thoughtful even. But is it?
They’re my greatest life’s work, my biggest, most important project. They’re the thing I point at as an excuse for my under eye wrinkles, sagging belly and constant yawning. So to frame photos of them as a gift, is it really a right and proper gift for Mother’s Day? Or is it akin to an ex boyfriend of mine who prided himself on buying his girlfriend’s massage courses for their birthdays. As in ‘how to massage’ courses; not a course of massages. Perhaps these photos are a similar indulgence. A projection of being obsessed with oneself and ones achievements. A silent scream of “Look what I made! Aren’t they just wonderful?”
Or maybe I’m over thinking it.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
One year ago: Florentine quiche and Flourless chocolate cake and Cadbury Creme Mini Egg chocolate flapjackand School fair rocky road
Two year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs
Three years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits
Four years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread
Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients:
Makes about 15
Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Melt the butter and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat until dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the flour, sugar, and bicarbonate of soda and give it a good mix with a wooden spoon. Leave the mixture to cool for a few minutes before stirring in the chocolate chips.
Using your hands, form handfuls of the warm mixture into balls about 4cm across, you should make about 15. Place them on the lined trays, making sure that there’s plenty of space for them to spread in the oven. I leave a 5cm gap between each. Bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes until the dough has spread into cracked looking biscuits.
If you like your biscuits with a bit of ‘chew’ (more cookie like) then take them out when only the sides are brown. If you like them crunchy then let the whole biscuit get a suntan. Let them cool on the baking tray for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
What a year! What a glorious year. My third baby born, my first book also ‘born’ (ahem), I’ve become one of the Huffington Post’s recipe writers, am proud to be one of Scoff’s recipe presenters and this here blog is going to be 5 years old in 2015. I might even hold it a birthday party.
That’s quite enough showing off for one blog post (no-one likes a show off do they?) Instead, here are your top 10 blog posts of 2015:
1) A very humble ginger cake that I made with the folks at Scoff. You just mix it up (not even with a mixer… just a spoon will do), bung it in the oven and top with a little icing sugar. Easy as.
2) Spiced apple cupcakes with gingerbread buttercream. Another no mixer cake recipe. I am completely and utterly with you on this one – easy wins every time.
3) Psychedelic school fair rocky road. Best to make this in gargantuan quantities and then remove from the house asap.
4) Flourless chocolate cake. Now if you want this gluten free then be sure to source GF chocolate. Not all chocolate is created equally.
5) Cut out vanilla biscuits. The best biscuit dough ever for making cute cut out shapes. Ice or don’t ice.
6) Carrot, courgette and cheese mini pancakes. Mini pancakes or fritters? Whatever you call them, they’re delicious. My sons love them, my Dad loves them. I love them. Canapés that work as weaning fodder get a big tick from me.
7)Lemon button biscuits. Look good, taste good and one from my book. I made these in honour of my very talented Nanna who used to be a bespoke tailor-ess.
8) Easy chocolate cupcakes. Another easy recipe with no mixer required. These are way too easy to whip up. Pass the chocolate ganache icing will you?
9) I’ve written a recipe book! Not even a recipe in sight – just a post about my book, which is out now and is doing well (hurrah, thank you to you gorgeous lot who have bought it!)
10) Lemon drizzle loaf. Classic, simple. Yes please.
What does 2015 hold? Well there will be very few giveaways I’m afraid. They take me way too long to set up and with three boys and loads of other bits and bobs of work I just can’t spare the time. I’ll be trying to shoot some videos (which will likely be dreadful at first so bear with me please) instead and will continue with the weekly recipes I so love to blog. Probably included will be a fair few weaning and finger food recipes, for that is what life is about at the moment. Little Lawrence may even make a guest appearance in some of the recipes.
I wish you all a healthy and happy 2015!
Holly. x
If you’re looking for something wholesome and share-able for Boxing Day then I think I have it. This is easy to prep, rises and does it’s bready thing whilst you crack on with assembling Lego/locating the purple Quality Street/shouting at the children to be quiet whilst you watch Mary Poppins.
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show off how to make this loaf. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
Last December: My slow cooker beef bourguignon pie and Crumble topped mince pies and a very ugly but delicious cranberry & raspberry traybake
Two years ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes and Christmas pudding fizz and Brandy butter icing and Rudolf morsels
Three years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry and Christmas scones and Ginger cake with Christmas cottage and Hot chocolate on a stick
Four years ago: Moonuts and Cheese biscuits and Parsnip soup and Inauthentic chicken tagine
Cheese concertina loaf
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients:
Butter a 2lb loaf tin. Make the bread dough by mixing the flour, yeast and salt in a stand mixer with the dough hook, or mix by hand in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and water slowly as the dough hook is turning at speed 1. Alternatively add by hand and use your hand to mix in then knead for about 10 minutes until the dough feels smooth and elastic. In the mixer this will take 4 minutes.
Cover the bowl of dough with clingfilm and leave to prove until double the size. Knock back by giving the dough a few turns in the stand mixer with the dough hook or use your hands. Then roll out into a long belt of dough, ensuring the width of the belt is the same width as your loaf tin is. Measure the height of your loaf tin and double this number – then cut the belt into pieces this long. Scatter cheese evenly on all the pieces, fold and the place upright in the loaf tin, with the open side upwards. Sprinkle with a little flour and cover loosely in clingfilm then leave to prove until double the size.
Bake in a preheated oven at 220C/gas mark 7 for 30 minutes until well risen and golden looking. Cool on a wire rack and remove from the tin as soon as you can. Tear and share whilst still a little warm!
P.S. To sign up for my free monthly newsletter just click here. It has a baking SOS, recommendations on bits of kit I can’t live without, my kitchen catastrophe of the month, a sneak preview of a recipe coming up on this blog and a letter from me telling you what I’ve been up to. Remember to check your inbox for a confirmation email and also to add my email recipesfromanormalmum@gmail.com to your contacts. Otherwise I could go to spam.
This is almost too quick to knock up. Like one of those cake in a cup jobs that leads to 10pm cravings and tighter jeans. This freezes well and is delicious toasted for breakfast with a little butter spread on it.
More recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show off how to make this loaf. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Last December: My slow cooker beef bourguignon pie and Crumble topped mince pies and a very ugly but delicious cranberry & raspberry traybake
Two years ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes and Christmas pudding fizz and Brandy butter icing and Rudolf morsels
Three years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry and Christmas scones and Ginger cake with Christmas cottage and Hot chocolate on a stick
Four years ago: Moonuts and Cheese biscuits and Parsnip soup and Inauthentic chicken tagine
Orange & cranberry loaf
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and grease and line a loaf tin. Mix together all the ingredients apart from the cranberries and beat for about 3 minutes with an electric mixer or 5 minutes by hand until light and creamy looking. Add the cranberries, stir lightly. Pour into the tin and bake for 30 – 40 minutes (depends on how large your tin is, the larger it is the quicker it should bake) until a toothpick comes out of the centre of the loaf clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing the tin.
P.S. To sign up for my free monthly newsletter just click here. It has a baking SOS, recommendations on bits of kit I can’t live without, my kitchen catastrophe of the month, a sneak preview of a recipe coming up on this blog and a letter from me telling you what I’ve been up to. Remember to check your inbox for a confirmation email and also to add my email recipesfromanormalmum@gmail.com to your contacts. Otherwise I could go to spam.
So I’m taking on some kind of personal blogging challenge. I’ve decided to post a recipe a day every weekday until Christmas eve. I may not make it, in fact it’s highly likely something related to looking after three kids and preparing for Christmas at the same time might get in the way. But I’m going to give it a good go.
Here’s the first recipe. This tart is always loved by everyone. The pastry is easy to handle, the filling chocolately without being too sweet. This is my alternative Christmas dessert on the big day, as you can make it 2 days in advance and crack on with something else.
More recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
I made a lovely video with the Scoff folks to show off how to make this tart. You can see the vid on my YouTube channel and also the Scoff one. You can watch it below too.
Last December: My slow cooker beef bourguignon pie and Crumble topped mince pies and a very ugly but delicious cranberry & raspberry traybake
Two years ago: Mini Yorkshire pudding canapes and Christmas pudding fizz and Brandy butter icing and Rudolf morsels
Three years ago: Lime meringue pie with chocolate pastry and Christmas scones and Ginger cake with Christmas cottage and Hot chocolate on a stick
Four years ago: Moonuts and Cheese biscuits and Parsnip soup and Inauthentic chicken tagine
Chocolate ganache tart with my most well behaved pastry
Ingredients:
Pastry:
Ganache:
Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour and icing sugar (use hands/food processor or stand mixer on speed 1/2 using flat beater) until you have a breadcrumb like consistency. Then bind together with the egg using either a blunt knife or the flat beater at speed 1 on the stand mixer. Once you have clumps of pastry pulling together, use your hands to gather into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry to a thickness of about 3mm and line a 23cm loose bottomed tart tin with it. (I move the pastry by laying both hands under the pastry with palms upwards and fingers spread wide.) Make sure the pastry is pushed into the corners, then run the rolling pin over the top of the tart tin to trim the pastry edges. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans/uncooked rice or pulses. Bake in a preheated 180C/Gas 4 oven for 15 minutes then remove the beans and paper and bake until lightly golden brown and baked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool but leave in the tin.
Make the ganache by boiling the cream in a small saucepan until just boiling. Do not allow to boil for long or the ganache will be grainy. Then add the butter and chocolate and stir until completely smooth. Pour into your blind baked pastry case and leave to set, either on the side at room temperature overnight for a soft set. Or in the fridge which is a lot faster and achieves a hard set. If you use the fridge method the tart will lose a little of its shine though taste not compromised.
P.S. To sign up for my free monthly newsletter just click here. It has a baking SOS, recommendations on bits of kit I can’t live without, my kitchen catastrophe of the month, a sneak preview of a recipe coming up on this blog and a letter from me telling you what I’ve been up to. Remember to check your inbox for a confirmation email and also to add my email recipesfromanormalmum@gmail.com to your contacts. Otherwise I could go to spam.
Holly Bell 