Ginger biscuits

Up earlier today as i need to bake some ginger biscuits for the horticultural show ready to submit for 8 am. These are being entered into a competition but i don't expect any wins as the ladies round here are all hardcore bakers that can whip up a cake batter before you can say icing.

Ingredients 

225g self raising flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
4tsp heaped ground ginger
1tsp cinnamon
125g butter
100g light brown muscovado sugar
100g golden syrup
100g stem ginger cut up into fine cubes

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, butter and rub to make a crumbly mixture
• Add the syrup and cut ginger and bring together to make a dough 
• I measured out 40g per biscuit rolled to a ball and slightly flatten and then chilled in the fridge over night (you could chill for 30 mins, i was just up early the next morning to bake them)
• Cook for 13-15 till they are golden brown 
• Place on a cooling rack for 10 mins where they will harden up but stay nice and chewy in the middle 

Hey guess what look i came 3rd not bad for my first try, apparently touch more ginger was to the judges tastes so if you like really gingery ginger nuts maybe add 5-6 tps of ground ginger !! now that is very gingery.

Valentine cookies

Valentines is round the corner giving us another excuse to get into the kitchen and make some treats so we thought we would make these sweet love heart iced cookies

We made a chocolate cookies base  this recipe makes 24 cookies

275g plane flour

100g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

120g caster sugar

120g butter

120g golden syrup

1 egg

• Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together
• add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 
• roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting
• once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

to make the icing mix 

90ml water

500 kg icing sugar

15g egg white powder 

i use this for the line icing and then water it down a bit to make the flood icing, i use wilton gel colours to colour my icing as it is a lot more vibrant.  To create the dots i flooded with one colour first then went back a few mins later i went back to insert the dots with flooded icing too.

Valentine Cookies

Valentines is round the corner giving us another excuse to get into the kitchen and make some treats so we thought we would make these sweet love heart iced cookies

We made a chocolate cookies base  this recipe makes 24 cookies

275g plane flour

100g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

120g caster sugar

120g butter

120g golden syrup

1 egg

• Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together
• add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 
• roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting
• once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

to make the icing mix 

90ml water

500 kg icing sugar

15g egg white powder 

i use this for the line icing and then water it down a bit to make the flood icing, i use wilton gel colours to colour my icing as it is a lot more vibrant.  To create the dots i flooded with one colour first then went back a few mins later i went back to insert the dots with flooded icing too.

Hearty Jammie dodgers

 Love being in the kitchen with my girls it is such a pleasure to have some girly time chatting and baking, how could i not love being in the kitchen when both my girls are just so lovely i want to gobble them both up, even with Sophie wearing her scary Grufflo suit.  Well Valentines is fast approaching and we wanted to make an after school treat of some home made jammie dodgers but with a difference of being  heart shaped and completely over the top with glitter i have to say i think i need to improve my photo skills for the love of trying i could not get the glitter to twinkle as it did in real life.  I even went outside at one point to try and get shots with more sparkle but alas these will have to do

 Sophie is getting so good in the kitchen that she is sharing what she knows to her little sister Ella and even lets her have a go to although i can already see there will be fights over who gets the whisk

 our cookie dough recipe

350g plain flour
100g self raising
120g caster sugar
120g butter
120g golden syrup
1 egg

Sift all dry ingredients add the butter and rub together

add syrup and egg bring together as a dough 

roll out i do this in between cling film and make 2 flat circles and chill before cutting

once cut cook for 14 min at 170c

we made a plum and cranberry jam if you want to find out about making your own plum jam find my recipe here

once the cookies are cool and the jam warm just add a blob in between two cookies and gently push together when the jam cools these will set the cookies together.  we also made a icing glaze and brushed this on top of the cookies and then went to town with the red glitter and we added some firmer icing dots and squiggles for decoration

Christmas Cookies

 Just love being in the kitchen with my girls especially over Christmas where we can get creative making some lovely spiced ginger cookies and then go crazy with the icing and glitter to decorate them with lots of lovely bright colours they look good as decorations on the tree, that is as long as they are able to stay there with out being munched.

Candy window cookies

Sophie and i are finally in the kitchen after a long time so excuse the raggle taggle look as she has been a bit poorly and this is my attempt to cheer her up and get her back on track again.  We decided to make some Christmas cookies but a little different as i have always wanted to try melting boiled sweets in cookies to give the stain glass window effect.  Sophie made a basic cookie recipe bringing the cookie dough together in a bowl then rolling it out in between two bits of cling film, then we rested the dough in the fridge.

While the dough was chilling and relaxing we had a smashing good time with a rolling pin, some different coloured boiled sweets and a ziplock making sugary bits from the sweets.  Once the dough was chilled Sophie choose the star cutter as it is Christmasy and then we cut a smaller star inside before we sprinkled the centers with the boiled sugary bits we smashed up then popped them in the oven for 10 mins.  After the cookies have come out and cooled the sugar centers set hard and add a lovely flavour to the cookies, we decorated the edges of the cookies with icing sugar covered in lots of edible glitter to make them sparkle

Sophie offered to help clean up after but i will think twice next time 

Halloween cookies