White Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Long time no see!

Anyway, here is a quick little recipe which I think is fab and perfect for snacking on, the only problem is they are very addictive.

Ingredients:
Caster Sugar - 200g
Butter - 150g
Plain Flour - 200g
Milk- 1tbsp
Vanilla- 1 tsp
White Chocolate (in chips) - 75g

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees fan

Cream sugar and butter together
Mix in flour, vanilla extract and milk until smooth
Stir in the white chocolate chips. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.
Break the dough up into small balls and put on a greased tin.
Bake for 10 minutes until golden around the edges.

Leave to cool or eat warm!

John Whaite Bakes

Tomorrow is the Great British Bake Off quarter final, it is getting serious now! *cue screams*

So in celebration of the fact it is nearly the GBBO quarter final and the woes that I can never enter, I did a selection of bakes from last years winner's book, John Whaite Bakes. 

Also apologies in advance about the picture quality, it is appalling and I don't really know why, except camera troubles. 

I started off by baking his "Simple Strawberry Tart" - as, let's face it summer is coming to a close...or is over altogether. 

The tart is a shortcrust pastry base filled with creme patisserie and then covered in strawberries. It was a sweet and delicious tart which I know that when summer returns, if summer returns, I will definitely be baking this again. It also meant I had to make creme pat for the first time, exciting!

I then attempted to create a plaited loaf. Which soon became two plaits of three strands which is slightly less impressive. For some reason, the dough was a complete and utter failure. And although it tasted ok, the strands didn't become one in the oven and the texture was a bit off. I don't like making bread!

In a quest to find a simple thing to bake I turned to his Caramel Shard Cookies which involves making a simple cookie dough and a slab of caramel, which is smashed. They are then combined, to make a rather dangerous cookie dough mixture. 

The odd thing about this recipe is that they are baked as balls, they are not shaped before they go in to the oven, but suprisingly enough they baked perfectly. 

They were fab and I was eating them for a whole week, the vision of health that I am. 

 Doesn't it look beautiful!

 John Whaite, if you are reading this, your book is gold, I love it. Everyone should buy a copy just for the recipes I have mentioned above, if nothing else.

I cannot wait for Bake Off, as sadly enough, along with Downton Abbey, it is the highlight of my television week.

And with that all that remains to be said is, on your marks, get set, bake!

Mad Hatter Jam Tarts, Brownies and Polka Dot Cookies

Last weekend it was my birthday party so I did a bit of baking in preparation and these were the result.

First, jam tarts which are names "Mad Hatter Jam Tarts" mainly due to the strange way in which the pastry is made. Two eggs are boiled the egg whites are removed and the yolks smashed up and mixed with the normal pastry ingredients. The pastry is left to chill over night and then baked with jam in it. Once out of the oven a raspberry is placed in the middle of the tart as decoration.

I then made polka dot cookies which are basically cookies with Smarties on the top, which adds colour and makes them look more appealing. They are not particularly daring as a recipe but they are chewy and cookie-y, just what they are supposed to be. 

Finally, I made chocolate brownies. This recipe was supposed to have rum and orange juice in it but I decided to leave them out as I didn't want the taste of them. However it didn't impact them that heavily, it did make them a little fudgier which is no bad thing! 

So that was my contribution to my birthday party which was lovely as the whether was so warm and sunny. Great for a barbecue and outdoor film screening.

Perfect.