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Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: How long’s a piece of string? Cooking time: Depends on your oven, but around 10 minutes. Ingredients: 225g caster sugar 300g plain flour 200g melted butter 1tsp vanilla extract 1tsp baking powder pinch of salt 1 egg, plus egg yolk 1 or 2 tbls milk Shed load of chocolate chips, or about 200g. Plus a couple of spoonfuls on a plate reserved for later. Method: Preheat the oven to 165 degrees. Sieve flour into a bowl, and add sugar and baking powder. Meanwhile, melt some butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, (you can do this in the microwave. but it will melt real quick,…
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Chocolate Cake
I’ve been in tray-bake mood for the past few weeks, so I used the square tin and made a chocolate one, covered it with Icing and chocolate shavings. It’s quite exquisite to eat and incredibly soft. I think the reason for this is because I sifted the flour twice and cooked the cake on a lower temperature than normal. However, this may not be the reason and it could just be a guess, in which case it was probably a fluke, but you can try it anyway and see if you get the same results. My boys love this. Ingredients for Sponge: 6 oz Self Raising Flour, 5 oz granulated…
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Chocolate Splodge – The One You Used To Eat For School Dinners.
My good friend is a ‘Dinner Lady’ (please note the captitals – they are Very Important), and this Chocolate Splodge is the best. Full of nostalgia and gooiness! (Please note the ‘i’. Do not mistake it for a ‘d’. There is none of that.) You will need a pastry case (bought prepared). Unless you fancy making one, but I can’t be bothered. 1.5 oz margarine 3 oz castor sugar 1 oz cocoa powder 5 oz powdered milk 2-3 floz hot water Cream together margarine and sugar. Then add powdered milk and cocoa powder, a little at a time, whilst adding the hot water gradually. Pour into pastry case and leave to…
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Pip’s Paella
Paella Ingredients: A hand full of white rice for each person. I use Basmati. 1 tbs oil Diced chicken 1 red pepper Frozen prawns thawed Handful of garden peas 100g Chorizo Pinch of Saffron 1 tsp Turmeric powder 1 Chicken stock cube 1 tsp Paprika Pinch of salt and pepper Method: Fill a cup with boiling water and add the chicken stock cube, saffron and turmeric powder. Leave to dissolve. Meanwhile, boil the rice for the recommended time, drain and leave to stand. Good tip here-When I pour the rice into the colander, pour over boiling hot water from the kettle as this will get rid of the starch-…
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Stuffed Aubergines
In all my 48 years on this earth I have never stuffed an aubergine. It’s never been one of the things I would put down on my bucket list, but more to do with something I’ve never done that would probably be advantageous and fulfilling but not especially necessary. A bit like tasting a scallop, or finally reading the chronicles of Narnia or singing at a karaoke. Some of the stuff I’d like to do, but haven’t yet got round to it. But the other day I finally stuffed an aubergine and it was incredible. Here is my vegetarian version. Ingredients: 4 aubergines 4 tbls olive oil 1 large onion…
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Victoria Sponge…Kind of!
Have you ever tried a proper Victoria Sponge cake? It’s the plainest of cakes, which is right up my street, because I am the ultimate plain Jane, enjoying rich tea biscuits, vanilla ice cream and anything else that gives minimum flavour. Actually, you can’t really put a Victoria sponge into that category, because when made well, they can be scoffed quite easily whilst emitting moans of exquisite pleasure, and a scoop of mashed potato will not do that, unless you throw in half a block of butter. Queen Victoria had this cake named for her. A Duchess of some town, introduced the concept of having sponge cake for afternoon tea,…
