Chocolate and Pistachio Biscuits

I absolutely love biscuits and these are particularly moreish and buttery! The pistachios add a fantastic crunch in such a crumbly, short biscuit. These are very easy to make, you can also freeze some of the dough and just cut rounds off when you have someone coming over! The chocolate and pistachio works really well together- you must give them a go!

Recipe: (makes about 35-40)

- 220g unsalted butter (very soft)

- 80g Icing sugar

- 280g Plain flour

- 30g Cocoa powder (I use Green & Blacks)

- Pinch of Salt

- 70g chopped blanched pistachios 

How to make:

- Cream the butter, salt and icing sugar together in a large bowl until creamy and combined. Then add the flour, cocoa powder and pistachios and mix until fully combined. 

- Try and mould the dough in to the shape of a long roll and wrap in cling film. Pop it in to the fridge or freezer for an hour (I put it in the freezer as it goes harder and is easier to cut).

- Heat the oven to 190c and grease 2 baking sheets. Take the dough out of the freezer and unwrap. Then cut the dough in to rounds of about 5mm and put on to the baking sheets.

- Bake for about 12 minutes, but keep an eye on them so the edges don't burn. Allow to cool a little on the baking sheets first before moving to a cooling wire. 

- Enjoy with coffee! 

Photo how to:

The dough

The biscuits ready to go in to the oven

Fresh out of the oven, cooling on the wire rack

xXx

Crumbly Date Squares

As much as I love to try baking healthy things, sometimes you just have to bake something really naughty and buttery, and these crumbly date squares are just that! I found the recipe in a baking cookbook and decided that it would be just the thing to bake for afternoon tea with my family. 

They are really easy to make and taste delicious! They have a lovely crumbly texture on the top and bottom with sticky, gooey date inside them. They are terribly moreish! Give them a go, its hard not to devour them all at once.

Recipe: (makes about 20 squares)

- 300g chopped Dates 

- 250ml water

- 200g soft butter

- 200g light brown sugar 

- 260g plain Flour

- 150g rolled oats

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

To make: 

- Preheat the oven to 180c and grease and line the bottom and sides of a baking tin.

- Put the chopped dates and the water in a small saucepan, and on a medium-low heat, cook until all of the water has been absorbed. This should take about 10 minutes, then leave to cool.

- Meanwhile start making the crumble. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Combine the Oats, flour and baking powder together and then add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix until fully combined- the mixture will be quite crumbly and short. 

- Put half of the crumble mixture in to the bottom of the baking tin and squash down with your hand or the back of a spoon. Then spoon on the date mixture on top and smooth out to the edges. Lightly top with the remaining crumble mixture. 

- Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown on top. Keep an eye out for it browning too quickly!

- Allow to cool fully in the tin and then lift out and cut in to squares or fingers- whichever you prefer!

Photo how to:

The dates and water mixture ready for heating

The finished date 'jam'

The crumbly mixture

The crumble mixture squashed in to the tin

The date mixture on top of the crumble

The finished crumbly date squares

Enjoy!

xXx

Healthy Date, Almond and Oat Cookies

I love making/ baking anything that is healthy, so I was really excited to come across a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe that used Coconut oil as the fat source. I took parts of this recipe and adapted it to include oats and dates, and it worked really well! The result was a soft in the middle, yet slightly chewy around the edge cookie and they were so good they didn't last long enough to make it in to a tupperware box! 

So have a go at making these cookies, they are very delicious, easy to make and also Vegan which is a plus! 

Recipe: (makes 12-14)

- 180g (2 cups) Almond flour

- 90g (1 cup) Oats

- About 16 small Dates, chopped

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 55g (1/4 cup) Coconut oil, melted

- 2 tbsp Honey

- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract

To make: 

- Preheat the oven to 200c and grease and line a baking tray. Melt the coconut oil- I find this easiest done in a little bowl in the microwave.

- Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, and then add the wet ingredients and mix. The mixture will be quite crumbly, but If you feel it is too crumbly then add more coconut oil or even a little milk might work to bind it together. 

- Then wrap the dough in some cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 20-30 mins just to cool down.

- Take the dough and roll in to balls and place on to the baking tray. Then squash down the balls to make in to a cookie shape. 

- Bake for about 7-9 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they will brown around the edges quickly. Take them out when they are lightly browned on top and underneath. 

- Allow them to cool on a wire rack before eating them as they will be quite crumbly when still warm.

- Then enjoy!! 


Photo how to:

Chopping the dates in to small, rough chunks

The dough resting in cling film

The balls of dough squashed in to cookie shape

The cookies ready for baking 

The cookies cooling on the wire rack and looking delicious! 

Enjoy!!

xXx

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I absolutely LOVE peanut butter! So when I came across this recipe on Averie Cooks website, I knew they had to be made!

 I then took them with me to my friend Ginny's BBQ, and they certainly went down well. They are so easy to make, have a wonderful soft and chewy consistency and are also gluten free which is always a plus! 

Recipe: (makes 12 medium sized cookies)

- 1 cup of peanut butter

- 1 cup of light brown sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 tbsp vanilla extract

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 50g dark chocolate, chopped in to chunks (can use milk/white also)

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180c, and line and grease 2 baking trays.

- Measure out and then put all of the ingredients, apart from the chocolate chunks, in to a large bowl and stir vigourously (as the mix will be quite stiff) until combined. Then add the chocolate chunks and stir them in.

- Put the mixture on to the baking trays, making 12 blobs of the mixture. Space them evenly apart as they spread when they are in the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they can over bake very quickly. 

- Take them out of the oven when they are golden brown on top, they will still be slightly squidgey. Let them cool on a wire rack and then tuck in! 

Note: They are best enjoyed on the day you baked them, as they tend to get a little chewy overnight. But they could probably be refreshed by popping them in the oven for a few minutes.

Photo how to:

I used Waitrose smooth peanut butter

All the ingredients in the bowl before mixing

After mixing- it is quite a stiff mixture

The mixture spaced out on a lined baking tray

And the finished cookies! Yummy!

xXx

Almond, Rosemary and Fig savoury biscuits!

I haven't done any baking for a while, so I decided it was time! I found this recipe for rosemary and fig biscuits (but really they are more like crackers), but instead of using normal flour, they use Almond flour/ground Almonds. This means that they are high in protein which is good :)

The Recipe: (makes about 25 biscuits)

-1 1/2 Cups of Almond flour

-1/2 teaspoon of rock salt

-1 tsp Rosemary, finely chopped

-4 dried figs, finely chopped

-1 egg

-1 tbsp Olive oil

To make:

-In a mixing bowl, stir together the almond flour, salt, rosemary and dried figs. Then add the egg and olive oil.

-Stir the mix until combined. 

-Roll out the mix inbetween 2 pieces of baking paper, so that you can get it nice and thin (about 1/8 inch thick), then cut in to sqaures with a knife or pizza cutter.

-Then bake on about 150c, for 8-10mins (but keep an eye on them as they brown quickly) until lightly browned on top and bottom.

-Enjoy!

Chopping the Figs and Rosemary, and below the dry ingredients on the left and then adding of the wet on the right!

This is what the mix looks like once combined, then below is the mixture having been rolled out!

Above is the mixture once it has been cut in to shapes (you can make up ones from little bits of mix). Then below are the biscuits ready to go in the oven!

And these are the finished biscuits cooling on a wire rack! Yum!