Oat Cookies

Oat cookies. Oh yes. They deceive you into thinking they're healthy... don't believe a word of it!

My notes on these are a bit random, I'll try and make sense of them - 170g butter, 210g light brown butter... what?
Try again... this is what I actually used

170g softened butter
110g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
105g selfraising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
260g oats
"1 cup" mixed exciting stuff (chocolate chips, dried fruit... etc I haven't put a weight, I just put a handful of each in)

Beat together the sugars and butter.
Add the egg and vanilla and mix together.
Sift in together the flour, salt and cinnamon. Stir until partially combined
Mix in the oats, stir again.
Add the mixed dry ingredients and stir to incorporate.

Using a teaspoon take scoops of the mix, and roll in to a small ball in your hands.
Place on a lined baking sheet, and press the centre of each to flatten slightly.

Bake for 10-15mins in a 190oC oven until golden brown.
Remove from tray and place on wire rack to cool.
Eat.

Blueberry Pancakes - American style

I found some bargain blueberries today, and decided that what I needed was blueberry pancakes.

 

It was only whilst I was cooking that I remembered I'd found these magical little pots in Home Bargains last week, which would be perfect to go with them!


American Style Blueberry Pancakes

200g SR Flour
1tsp Baking powder (if you don't have any, and I never do... you can make your own with  2 parts Cream of Tartar: 1 part Bicarbonate of Soda)
1/4tsp salt
1/4 tsp lemon zest
 1 egg
300ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
30g butter (melted)
100g blueberries

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and stir in the lemon zest. Make a well in the middle.

 

Mix the milk, egg and vanilla in a jug.

Add the liquid to the bowl, whisking continually.

 

You might not need all the milk mix, you're looking for a thickish batter, runny enough to scoop and drop into a pan, without it running everywhere!
Melt the butter and add this to the mixture, stir as you add, otherwise you end up with lumps of solidified butter. And no one wants that. 
Stir in the blueberries. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Heat a frying pan (non stick works best. Then you don't need to worry about using butter or oil which just always goes wrong) on medium heat, and scoop in heaped teaspoons of the mix.

 

You can probably cook 3 or 4 at a time depending on how big they are.
I employed my trusty ice-cream scoops again. These were big ol' pancakes.

Cook for about 3 minutes, or until you see bubbles pop in the surface of the pancakes.

Flip them, and cook for a further 3 minutes.

You should hear a fizzing noise after you've flipped them over - that's the blueberries bursting and the juices cooking...

Stack them and serve with maple syrup! mmm. Syrupy!

I've now got a large jar of left over mix left for breakfast tomorrow. And possibly the next day.
I just hope it doesn't release a whole lot of carbon dioxide over night and explode...

And tomorrow I might even make a blueberry sauce to go with it. Maybe.

Easy Apple Tart

Need a quick lazy pudding?

Take some rolled-puff pastry (I used left overs from the palmiers)
Cut into a circle.

 

Press and twist a slightly smaller cutter into the disc to make an indentation, but don't cut all the way through.
Place onto a lined baking sheet.


Slice a bramley apple very thinly, and arrange the slices on the pastry disc.

 

Sprinkle the apple layers with a mix of caster sugar, demerara sugar and cinnamon.

Add small chunks of butter to the top.

Bake at 200oC until the pastry is puffed and golden, and the apple is cooked through.

Fruit and Nut Bread

Originally meant to be a recipe to use up over ripe bananas - just to make banana bread... until I found some recipes that used dates (which I had in my fridge from, I dunno, October, probably).So I had to use a recipe that used both.
Then I had to find a recipe that didn't use condensed milk, as apparently that's not one of my cupboard staples this week.

I found a date and banana bread that included walnuts. But I don't like walnuts, so I wouldn't have any of those. I've got cashews, would they work?
Ooooh, what's that? Walnuts? Left over from the same recipe as the dates? How fortuitous!
So, that's slightly over ripe bananas, dates and walnuts to be used? And a recipe that requires slightly over ripe bananas, dates and walnuts?

We are a go!

I'll start off by admitting that I butchered the original recipe. And then I added sultanas. Sorry about that...

Banana Date and Walnut (ish) Loaf:

100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
225g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp baking powder
2 over ripe bananas (about 300g)
100g chopped dates
60g chopped walnuts
50g sultanas

Pre-heat the oven to 180oC
Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

 Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix well. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour after each one. Mix thoroughly.
Mash the bananas until smooth. Add the banana, sultanas and dates (I'd used dried dates, which I stoned, chopped and very briefly soaked in warm water), stir gently.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and mix until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the tin, and bake in the middle of the oven for about and hour and a quarter, or until you can poke it with a stick, and the stick come out clean!

Leave to cool in its tin for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel of the lining paper and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy, sliced, with butter.

Unless it's horrible. In which case I apologise!

Mmmmm. I've just had a nice warm piece with butter melting on top. It was delicious!!

We're Jammin'

 I have made JAM!!

What else can you do with almost on the turn strawberries?

I used:

200g chopped up strawberries
200g granulated sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice
and just for fun-
1 tbsp apple wheat grain liqueur (I put this in pretty much everything at the moment... mmm. apple and bacon risotto!!)

I made this up, and wasn't paying much attention to the timings. Again. But at least nothing burnt this time!

Place strawbs and sugar into a non stick pan - mush them together a bit.
Heat on a low hob for a couple of minutes, then add the liquid.
Stir together (mushing again)
Continue to heat on low until the sugar melts, stirring regularly.
Increase the heat to boil the mix, boil for 10 minutes, or until it thickens. (keep an eye out for it boiling over the pan!)
Leave to cool before transferring to a sterilised jar.

why are you on a squiff...?

I gave up on photos... blogger wasn't behaving!