Valentines Shortbread hearts

I made these shortbread hearts for my friend who was staying over the weekend, they are so delicious and they really melt in your mouth. They don't take long to bake either and spinkled with red sugar look divine.

All you need is:
150g/6ox plain flour
100g/4oz slighlty salted butter, softened
50g/2oz golden caster sugar
red sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 150c. Put the flour in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until it forms fine crumbs. (I love this doing this and it's especially easy sat in front of the tv!). Then stir in the sugar. Work the mixture together until it forms a ball and knead it brieflt until smooth. Sprinkle flour onto a work surface and roll out gently, if it starts to split keep pushing it back together. Cut out the desired shapes using a cutter and place them gently on an ungreased baking tray. Keep rolling the mixture out until you have used it all. bake for 35-49 minutes, it should still be pale when you remove from the oven. Cool and then sprinkle with sugar, if you don't have coloured sugar then caster sugar is fine. Perfect to give to your loved ones on Valentine!

Chocolate chip cookies

I love lazy sundays and I just seem to have enough of them! This morning I had a huge bowl of warming porridge with a mug of hot coffee and sat in bed reading the sunday morning papers! Bliss.

This afternoon I made cookies with some red and green chocolate chips that came from America.

To make them you need:
250g/9oz butter, softened
50g/2oz caster sugar
100g/3.5oz light brown sugar
300g/10oz self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk
Chocolate chips - I used a large handful

Simply preheat the oven to 180c and line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Take a large bowl and beat together the butter and sugars. (Yes, 250g is a whole packet of butter but it's worth it!). Once the mixture looks nice and fluffy stir in the flour and milk and stir together using a wooden spoon.

Divide the mixture into small balls and place them on the baking tray leaving enough room to spread. Flatten each one with your finger tips. Bake for 20 minutes and leave them on the tray to cool for 5 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack.

Serve on a cold winter's afternoon like today with a big mug of tea. Lovely.

Biscuit recipe

Here is the recipe for the biscuits I made. I followed the recipe from a vegetarian cookbook that I bought a few summers ago and at the back are some delicious recipes for home made lemonade, apple strudel as well as cakes and biscuits.

So to make these delicious melting moments with jam and buttercream you will need:

125g / 4oz unsalted butter
125g / 4oz caster sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essense
30g / 1oz custard powder
90g / 3oz self-raising flour
90g/3oz plain flour
Jam (I used plum but strawberry would be just as delightful)
Buttercream or thick whipped cream

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 and line two baking sheets with greese-proof paper.

Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat together using an electric hand whisk. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Then add the vanilla essence and beat again until combined.

Sieve together the flours and custard powder and and then add to the mixture. Uisng a metal tablespoon mix until combined and then gather evrything together using your finger tips to form a soft dough.

Roll one level teaspoon of mixture into a ball and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes until they look lovely and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Once the biscuits are completly cool spread half the biscuits with jam and the other half with buttercream or whipped cream and sandwich together. Delicious!

Beautiful biscuits

I have to say these biscuits taste delightful! They melt in your mouth and once you have had one you will definitely want another. I think they would just be perfect for an afternoon tea party or picnic. The filling is vanilla buttercream with homemade (by my father-in-law) plum jam! They taste divine and are one of the nicest biscuits I think I have ever made. Every time I eat one I would have to have two or three...

Easter biscuits

I have been away in Atlanta so I never got chance to do much Easter baking apart from these cookies! I had such a great time in America and got lots of fab baking bits and bobs, they have such an amazing selection over there! One of the grreat things I bought was a proper icing bag with lots of different shaped nozzles so I just need to get practicing now! I hope you all had a really lovely Easter weekend!

I've made these biscuits before and you can find the recipe by following this link: http://ickystickypudding.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html#6812812568545088556

To ice the biscuits I used a piping bag fitted with nozzle number 1 and piped around the edge of the biscuit. To do this you will need quite thick icing so make sure you do not add too much water to your icing sugar. Leave it to dry for a few minutes.

Next spoon in some icing and spread it around the biscuit using a wooden stick ot toothpick.

It should look like this! Try and pop all the air bubbles that raise to the top.

And decorate! I used pink and yellow food colouring to make pretty easter biscuits in the shape of eggs! I also made an easter bunny, a flower and a butterfly! I added some sliver balls to create a bit of sparkle!

I took them around to my friends house and they loved them! Happy Easter everybody!

Golden Biscuits

I can no longer find the recipe for these biscuits I made, I'm always putting things down and losing them again. Maybe it's in one of my cookbooks, mmm! Who knows! Anyway I thought I would post the pictures and show you how lovely they are! I'm really excited as we are FINALLY getting the internet installed in two weeks time, woo hoo! I'll be able to read your blogs all the more soon! Now I just need a laptop... mmm...

Melting Moments

These biscuits are lovely and really easy to make. They are not too sweet either and the oats give them a great texture and they really do melt in your mouth! I love the added cherry on top, the perfect finish to a perfect biscuit!


The recipe makes about 20 biscuits and I followed it from a book called 'cookies' that I found in a charity shop!


You will need the following ingrediants:
40g/1.5oz butter (plus a little extra for greasing)
65g/2.5oz lard
75g/3oz caster sugar
1/2 beaten egg
a few drops of vanilla essence
150g/5oz self raising flour
rolled oats for coating
glace cherries about 10


Preheat the oven 180c/350f/gas mark 4. Grease two or three baking trays with butter or you can use margarine if you wish. Using a large mixing bowl cream the butter, lard and sugar together and then gradually beat in the egg and vanilla essence.


Slowly sift in the self raising flour and roll the mixture into small bowls using the palms of your hands. Sprinkle the oats onto a board and roll the balls in them so they are evenly coated and then place them on the baking tray, spaced apart and place half or a quarter of the chopped cherry on top. They require about 15-20 minutes to bake. You will be able to tell when they are cooked as the kitchen will be filled with a gorgeous biscuit aroma. Allow them to cool and then serve to all your family and friends! Easy!

Chunky nutty choccy cookies

This is one of the best biscuit recipes I have tried. The biscuit is crunchy and delicious and I would recommend this recipe to anyone wanting to bake some lovely biscuits! I made two different kinds, one with raisins and one with dark bitter chocolate and tasted just irrestible! You could add all kinds of things to these biscuits and I'm sure they would taste great, white chocolate, milk chocolate, cranberries, seeds.....



All you need is the following ingrediants:
125g/4oz butter
125g/4oz light muscovado sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
150g/5oz plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
75g/3oz porridge oats
200g/7oz chocolate (if using dark like me use a little less!)
50g/2oz unsalted nuts (I used almonds and hazlenuts but anykind will do)


Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and take two large baking trays and cover them with baking paper.


Take a large mixing bowl and beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, flour, baking powder and oats and beat until the mixture is well combined. I then spilt the mixture into two bowls and in one bowl I added the roughly chopped dark chocolate pieces. In the other bowl I added the raisins. Again, mix well. It's as simple as that!


All you need to do now is to spoon small balls of the mixture on the baking tray and flatten slighly. Bake them for 15-20 minutes until they have spread out and are a lovely golden brown colour. Leave the biscuits on the tray for a few minutes before transfering them to a wire rack to cool.


Eat. Delicious. The pictures below show the raisin cookies and the dark chocolate ones just out of the oven!

Spice biscuits

My dad made me these biscuits when I went home for the weekend and I told him I would put the pictures on my blog so here they are. I don't have the actual recipe but I know they were made using self raising flour, mixed peel, mixed spice and ground ginger. They were a cross between a cookie and a cake but they tasted just delicious! Thanks dad for the lovely biscuits! Check out the pictures below!

Christmas Gingerbread Biscuits

Only 8 more days to go! 'Holidays are coming...'


My sister-in-laws came to stay over the weekend and wanted to make gingerbread biscuits to hand out as favours at her christmas party so I used a slightly different recipe from last time. We had great fun making them and a great weekend catching up together.

I found this recipe easier to follow than the first one I tried. I found the recipe in the bbcgoodfood magazine that Saff gave me (thanks!). It really is quite simple to follow and doesn't take up to much christmas shopping time!

All you need is:

125g/4.5oz unsalted butter

100g/4oz dark muscovado sugar

3.5tbsp golden syrup

300g plain flour

2 tsp ground ginger

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

icing sugar, silver balls and sprinkles to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4. Take a small pan and slowly melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan over a low heat. Take a medium bowl and sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger, mix all together and then pour the melted butter mixture in with it and stir until all the flour is covered. It should form a stiff dough but if it doesn't quite come together add a small splash of water.


Roll out the mixture on a clean surface using a rolling pin and use christmas shapes to cut out shapes. I used a star, a snowman and a tree. Place them onto a large tray covered in baking paper and place them into the oven for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool before decorating!
I used plain icing sugar mixed with water to make thick white icing and used a knife to smarten up the edges. My sisters then decorated them with sprinkles, silver balls and coloured icing!

Chocolate shortbread

My husband pointed out to me the other night that I bake lots of things that he likes but then he only gets to try them the once because I don't bake them again! I replied by telling him I like baking different things so I can put them on my blog and he said this wasn't fair! So I asked him what he would like and he said shortbread biscuits so I compromised with him by being allowed to cover them in dark chocolate! :)

I followed the same recipe as before and once they had cooled covered them in chocolate and stuck some together. There are currently none left in the biscuit tin (I made them on thursday night!)

I'm off food shopping now to Sainsbury's and then when I get back I'm going to make apple crumble and maybe some rocky roads or florentines! Yum!

Shortbread

Shortbread is made using only 3 ingrediants and doesn't take long to make at all. It makes me think of traditional things and naturally of scotland! Shortbread has a lovely melt in your flavour!

All you need is:

275g (9oz) plain flour

75g (3oz) caster sugar

175g (6oz) butter

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C/Gas mark 4 and gently grease a baking tray.

Mix the flour in a large bowl with the sugar and then fub in the butter. Once the mixture looks quite crumbly begin to knead it until all the crumbs have stuck together and it forms a soft smooth paste. Roll it out using a rolling pin and use cutters to cut out shapes. I used stars, circles, pumpkins and witches!

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes and leave to cool. Do you like the pictures?

Very Cherry Biscuits

This recipe must be the simplest and quickest recipe i've made so far. You'll love these cherry biscuits and they are lovely to eat on a lazy sunday afternoon while watching old black and white films. To make these, you will need:

100g/4oz unsalted butter
50g/2oz caster sugar
a few drops of vanilla extract
150g/6oz self-raising flour (sieved)
10-20 glace cherries

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two baking trays. Slice the butter into cubes and melt it over a low heat. Pour into a bowl and add the caster sugar, vanilla extract and then the flour. Use your hands to mix the mixture until it forms a firm dough.

Roll half the mixture into little balls and squash down with a spoon. Place a few chopped cherries onto the top of the biscuits and place them onto the baking tray and into the oven for 10-15 minutes. While the first tray of biscuits is cooking take the rest of the mixture and mix it with all the chopped cherries. Again, roll into little balls and bake for 10-15 minutes until they are golden. Transfer to a wire rack and try to wait until they are cooled before eating them!

This recipe is supposed to make 15 biscuits but mine were quite small so it might be better to make 10 larger bicuits. Enjoy!

Chocolate and nut biscuits

You will need:

175g/6oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
125g/4.5oz soft margarine
90g/3oz light muscovado sugar
60g/2oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125g/4.5 dark chocolate chips
30g chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and lightly grease two baking trays. This recipe makes about 18 biscuits.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, caster sugar and light muscovado sugar and then add the egg, flour and baking powder and the vanilla extract. When all the mixture is combined add in the chocolate chips and nuts. I used chopped up dark chocolate squares and hazelnuts.

Place tablespoons of mixture onto the baking trays allowing about 4cm between each for them to spread. Place in the middle of the oven and cook for aboout 10-12 minutes until they look golden brown. Remove them from the oven and leave them on the baking tray for a few short minutes before transferring to a wire rack! Delicious at any time of day! I'm sure this recipe will work well with a variety of different chocolate, nuts or even chopped cherries. Let me know how you get on!

Oat biscuits

I've only just begun baking biscuits but they taste so much better than shop bought ones. I can't just eat one either, I love home made biscuits; I have two at a time! I've been reading lots of cookbooks recently and exploring the art of cake, cookie and biscuit making! Well, i found this recipe in an Asda cookbook i once got free at freshers fair at university. Asda had a stand there and every hour they would ask questions about the city and you could win prizes, so i listened to the questions and went back the next hour and won a cookbook! Naughty Naughty! I aslo won some plates :) Well, they should have changed the questions shouldn't they! haha!

So, thanks to the recipe in the Asda cookbook i made these lovely biscuits.

The recipe goes like:

115g margarine
115g sugar
115g self raising flour (sieved)
3 tbs custard powder
45g rolled oats
2 tbs golden syrup

Simply preheat your oven to about 180C and then take a large bowl and mix all the ingrediants together until the ingrediants stick together. Break off small bits and roll into balls (the mixture should make about 24) and place them on a greased proof tray, flatten them slightly with a spoon or fork and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Cool on a wire tray and eat with a lovely cup of coffee! The perfect bedtime snack. I chucked a full small handfuls of raisins in mine but i reackon they would also be good with nuts or chocolate-I will let you know!