Salted Caramel Brownie Sandwich Cookies

My Mum sent me the link to this recipe with just the subject title ‘Oh My Word’. Which is slightly alarming in the few seconds before the link loads, but once I had seen exactly what she was talking about, I replied instantly: ‘OMG’. The conversation continued in a similarly monosyllabic style: ‘Blog?’ ‘Definitely.’ With a recipe title like this one, what more can you say?!Fast forward three days later and these cookies were cooling in my kitchen. I was nervous they would not live up to our high expectations but I needn’t have worried. You can’t really go wrong with this much chocolate and caramel! The cookies are exactly like the edge pieces of my favourite Nigella brownie recipe – chewy on top but still slightly fudgy in the centre. I think the trick with the filling is to be brave with the salt because a hefty pinch sprinkled on top of the caramel really brings out the flavours and stops it being too sickly. The cookie mixture is quite runny – 300g of chocolate to 50g of flour – which makes it tricky to get perfectly even circles, but somehow every biscuit still ended up with a suitable partner. I adapted the recipe a bit to suit the ingredients I had, but it seems versatile enough to continue playing about with – you could use dulce de leche instead of making the frosting or add white chocolate chips to the cookies, for example. Before I tucked in, I sent a photo to my Mum to show her the results waiting for her at home. The reply? ‘Ooohhhh.’ Which sums them up really – enjoy!

Salted Caramel Brownie Sandwich Cookies adapted from this recipe

Ingredients: 100g dark chocolate, chopped
250g milk chocolate, chopped
40g unsalted butter
2 eggs
150g soft light brown sugar sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
50g plain flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Caramel filling: 165g caster sugar
60ml water
125ml double cream
150g unsalted butter, chopped
sea salt flakes, for sprinkling

1. Start with the caramel filling. Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over low heat and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon handle until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil. Use a pastry brush dipped in water to brush down any sugar crystals clinging to the edge of the pan. Boil – without stirring – for 5-8 minutes until deep golden.
3. Remove from the heat and carefully add the cream and butter. Return the saucepan to the heat and stir until the mixture is smooth. Refrigerate until completely cool and firmed up.
4. For the cookies, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Place 200g of the milk chocolate, all the dark chocolate and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and stir frequently, until melted and smooth. Set aside.
5. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer and whisk for 10 minutes until paler and creamy. Gently stir through the flour, baking powder, chocolate mixture and remaining 50g of milk chocolate and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper, allowing them room to spread. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.
5. Whisk the firmed up caramel mixture.  Spread half the cookies with the icing, sprinkle generously with the salt and sandwich with the remaining cookies. Makes 12 sandwiches.

Marmalade Ginger Cream Cookies

I love sandwich cookies. My sister states that they are useless but I strongly disagree. Instead of taking one cookie, you get two at once. It gives you a cheeky chance to eat far more cookies than it looks like plus you get the bonus of a silky sweet filling the middle. What’s not to love?I recently made some disappointing ginger cookies using a sub-standard recipe. They turned out strangely smooth and powdery, lacking in flavour. But I hate it when something goes wrong so was determined to improve on the situation. Thankfully, these cookies provided the perfect solution. They’re chewy and textured from the oats and chunky marmalade, softened only slightly from the creamy filling speckled with stem ginger. A proper mouthful, a proper cookie, properly delicious. If I were to make these again, I would further enhance their chunky, chewy goodness – adding sultanas or coconut. However they were scrumptious as they were, and the absence of those other flavours let the ginger shine through. The buttercream was unusual to me, as it had cream added to the regular butter and icing sugar. This definitely showed in the end result and was good for added silky smoothness to finish off all that crunch of cookie. I love stem ginger, and the spiciness of the ginger chunks in the icing were perfect sparks of flavour. The final good thing about these cookies – a totally simple recipe. Enjoy!

Marmalade and Ginger Cream Cookies, from Sainsbury’s Magazine

Makes about 14

Ingredients: 50g soft unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
50g light brown soft sugar
finely grated zest of one orange
1 large egg yolk
50g thick-cut marmalade
50g plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g rolled oats
For the ginger cream filling: 250g icing sugar, sifted
75ml double cream
50g soft unsalted butter
75g stem ginger in syrup, drained and shredded

1. Preheat the oven to 170’C/fan 150’C, gas 3. Beat the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar, orange zest and egg yolk until smooth then beat in the marmalade. Mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda, then stir in the oats.

2. Place rounded teaspoon-sized balls of dough onto three lined baking sheets, spaced 5cm apart, then flatten slightly. Bake for 12-15minutes until just coloured at the edges. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack until cold.

3. Beat the icing sugar, cream and butter until smooth then stir in the stem ginger. With a knife, spread a generous amount on the base of a biscuit then stick the bottom half of another biscuit to form a sandwich. Repeat with all biscuits.

Running With Bourbons

Recently, I have taken up the habit of going for a thirty minute run most days after school and twice at the weekend. I run not to lose weight but to simply get fitter! Also, running along a riverside on a summery day can be quite lovely :) And after a good run, one of my new bake is perfect…

Bourbon biscuits! Yes, we are back to the Biscuit Mission. I just couldn’t stay away when bourbons to me are the staple of the biscuit tin (along with custard creams). The bourbon was created in 1910 by the biscuit company Peek Freans (who also first commercially sold the Garibaldi biscuit) and is named after the House of Bourbon, a Spanish family. There is also a very funny article instructing you on how to eat a bourbon, on the correct terms for bourbon eaters (I am a bourbonette :) ) here. All interesting, but the most important fact is that bourbons are oh-so-good! Two chocolate biscuits sandwiched together with a soft chocolate cream – what’s not to like?

I knew from the beginning of my Biscuit Mission that I needed to make bourbons but it took a bit of searching to find a recipe. I could have just made up a rough chocolate cookie and buttercream filling, but I wanted to get as close to the original texture and taste as possible of the bourbons in the shops. I was fairly pleased with the results, and my family definitely loved them. However I was looking for more of a crunch and neater filling: both of which are found in the Sainsbury's ones and are sadly probably due to a bunch of added nasty stuff. Overall, pretty good, but could be improved :)
Bourbon Biscuits
Ingredients (Biscuits):
1lb plain flour
2oz cocoa powder
2 level tsp baking powder
8oz butter (softened)
8oz sugar
4tbsp golden syrup
Filling: 4oz melted plain chocolate
8oz icing sugar
a few drops vanilla extract
a little water
Method:
1. Set oven to Gas Mark 3/ 160°C/ 325°F.
2. Sift cocoa, flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl cream together butter and sugar. When fluffy add the golden syrup.
3. Add the mixture to the flour, cocoa and baking powder mixture then knead together. It may take a while to become doughy but keep at it and it will come together.
4. Grease some greaseproof paper and line a baking tray with it. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about ¼ inch. Sprinkle a very small amount of flour onto the dough to stop it sticking. When it is spread across the tray sprinkle a little sugar over the top, and roll over the dough once more to set the sugar grains into it.
5. Cut the dough into fingers, then prick with a fork a couple of times. Bake for 15 approximately 15 minutes. Remove from oven and go over the cuts. Leave in tray until almost cool, then transfer onto wire rack.

Gypsy Creams

“I drizzled dark chocolate from a height so it set into crisp lines over the craggy surface. Behold, a biscuit of great, great joy!”
Nigel Slater

Ahh, the fabulous words of Nigel Slater! Since my post where I mentioned how I seemed to be baking through the biscuit tin, it has become my mini mission! I was going away for the weekend last weekend, and I wanted something simple which I could bake there as the kitchen is much smaller there. These little biscuits were in the latest Sainsbury's Magazine (so go along and get it!) and seemed just the ticket.
Before sandwiching, these are the humble gingernut. Afterwards, they are glorious crispy gypsy creams! The ginger biscuit itself has a lovely sandy texture, but still with a good crunch on the outside. Combined with the chocolate and coffee buttercream filling these were super! Sometimes buttercream is too sickly, but I think the coffee countered it well. In his article, Nigel Slater mentions how he tried dipping the whole biscuit in melted chocolate but that “good cooking is about knowing when to stop” and “it turned out to be too much of a good thing”. I can see why that would be, but totally agree that the sharp drizzle of dark chocolate over the top adds an extra something special (and it really should be dark chocolate, milk would be too sickly). One note: I chose not to level off the ginger, knowing I would want a stronger taste. However if you were going to do them minus the filling (which you could as they would be equally delicious) I would stump it up even more. Now, what next…chocolate bourbons? Enjoy!
Chocolate gypsy creams
Makes 12-14
For the Biscuits:
125g butter
125g golden caster sugar
1tbsp golden syrup
1 large egg yolk
175g plain flour
1tsp ground ginger
50g dark chocolate
Filling:

75g butter
100g icing sugar
1tbsp cocoa powder
1tbsp strong coffee
1. Preheat the oven to 160’C/Gas Mark 3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the syrup and egg yolk.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger together and stir gently into the butter and sugar. Bring together to form a dough.
3. Remove heaped teaspoons of the dough, roll them lightly into balls then put them on nonstick baking sheets. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Leave to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack.
4. To make the filling, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa and coffee before using to sandwich the biscuits together.
5. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, push all the filled biscuits up close together on the wire rack, then, using a teaspoon, drizzle the chocolate over them in thin lines. Leave until the chocolate has set.

Valentine’s Day Hearts

Yesterday, of course, was Valentine’s Day! Lots of love all over the country, and lots of red and pink heart-shaped foods!
Valentines Day originates from the Roman times, when the Roman Emperor Claudius II was having trouble getting men to join his army, because the men didn’t want to leave their girlfriends or wives. Aww :) So the Emperor broke and forbid all marriages. The priest Valentine secretly married people in secret, and when the Emperor found out he killed Valentine – and so he became a saint! (That is a very cut down version of the story learnt from Fridays assembly, there are lots of other beliefs too)

Of course I too made a heart-shaped food for the occasion, and knowing me, I made heart cookies :). They are from 30 Brilliant Baking Recipes, which is a small book that came from Olive Magazine – and a book I have not baked from before! Olive is a great magazine for all foodie-lovers, it is one of the places I would love to work at when I’m older! They often give out these little books with the magazine. There has been 30 Comfort Foods, 30 World Recipes, 30 French Classics, etc ! In the book, the cookies have small circles cut from the middle, but I did hearts for Valentines Day.

They are very simple and easy to make although the recipe makes a lot so you have to do a lot of batches! It is best to use a smooth jam, without lots of big lumps of fruit. Unlike me, who used blackberry jam with a couple of whole blackberries in so the biscuits were a bit wobbly…but still yummy! The smoothness just helps the biscuits stick together a bit flatter – if that makes sense! So now I have made my own digestives, my own sort-of-jammy-dodgers today, what’s next – custard creams? Hehe :)
Hope you all had a lovely Valentines!
Jammy Biscuits, from 30 Brilliant Baking Recipes
Makes 20
225g unsalted butter
150g golden caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
3 beaten egg yolks
250g plain flour
110g ground almonds
thin jam for spreading – flavour of your choice
icing sugar to dust

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Gradually add the flour and ground almonds.
2. Lightly knead the mixture until it comes together in a ball. Wrap and chill for 1hour.
3. Heat the oven to 170’C/fan 150’C/gas 5. Roll the dough out to the thickness of £1 coin on a lightly floured surface and stamp out biscuits using a 6-7cm cutter.
3. Reshape leftover dough into a ball, re-roll and cut out more biscuits. Stamp out a small circle/heart from the middles of half the biscuits.

4. Put the biscuits on lined baking sheets and bake for 12-15minutes or until golden. Rest for a minute then transfer to a wire rack.
5. When completely cold, spread the whole biscuits with jam. Dust the ring-shaped biscuits with icing sugar. Put a sugar dusted ring on top of a jam covered biscuit and press lightly together.