Paying Peanuts

The recipe I decided to bake for myself - when I say myself I obviously don't intend to eat this enormous treat all by myself! -  today was Peanut Butter Squares (think flapjack style). Today has been a big test for me because it is the first time I'm going to use Asda's smart price plain flour (60p per 1.5kg), something I've really tried to avoid at all costs because I work at a Windmill which stone-grinds its own organic white flour made entirely from British wheat.

As an employee I have seen countless customers come in and buy our flour and insist it is "the best" flour around, I'm not here to promote The Maud Foster Windmill but this idea does intrigue me. Part of me believes that the customers are simply tricking themselves into thinking that "Strong Plain Untreated Organic Stoneground Flour" is simply better because it has far more adjectives at the front of it but I wanted to test this idea for myself. Is there any real difference between a bag of 60p flour and a bag for £2?

The answer is, to my surprise, Yes. Obviously I can't be 100% sure because this wasn't exactly a scientific experiment but it certainly seems that way. I'm rather adept at telling the difference between flours after working at a windmill for half a decade (A long time, I know) and the smart price stuff just didn't seem... right.

Obviously most of my experience is of the same flour so anything different would probably feel that way but in my head I knew straight away that this wasn't as good at all. There was an aspect of it which felt cheap and nasty. And the end result was nowhere near as good as anything I've made so far. Not because of some hilarious kitchen accident but because the flour didn't turn into breadcrumbs very well at all and the end result has become far more powdery and less solid than originally intended. I guess that you can cut corners all you want to try and make the product economically viable but for flour I will certainly not try anything quite this cheap again. Saisnbury's home brand plain flour (about 80p if i remember correctly) was pretty good so maybe that is a better alternative.


The Result: 

Mmm Powdery...

On the one hand, they taste very good, despite feeling very very unhealthy - I can almost feel my heart struggling to pump all the condensed milk, butter (peanut and ordinary),chocolate and nuts into my bloodstream - but the fact that they are really very very powdery really ruins them. They aren't something I think I'd be excited to eat again but I can't decide whether it is the dodgy flour or just another duff recipe... I have plenty of ASDA's finest left so we shall see!

There's no brioche, we have plenty of time!

Yesterday I realised that I was quite behind on baking. As regulars may have noticed, there have been the odd absentee days scattered throughout the last few weeks. And understandably so I'd say, fitting baking around uni, work, farewell events, birthdays, greeting old friends and every other daily surprise is fairly difficult.

But that is, of course, no excuse for being late or unable to finish the challenge. So I'm making sure that from now on I remain on top of my challenge, I certainly don't want to leave a dozen recipes to do on the final day! Having said that, doing the same to catch up now would be equally ridiculous and back breaking (not mentioning wallet breaking and coma inducing).

I have to admit the main issue with the challenge now is the small matter of eating it all. I can't eat it all fast enough!

Anyway, the actual challenges today were Brioche and Chocolate Chip Cookies. And both went extraordinarily well, by now you will know that I am certainly my own best critic so this is by no means me simply tooting my own horn! I couldn't have asked for better if I'd tried. My only quibble was that I literally have no idea what to do with a brioche.

Call me uncultured if you wish but I simply had no idea what to do with it! Do I butter it? Put jam on it? Make sandwiches or dip it in soup? I literally haven't the foggiest! In the end I ate a couple of slices plain out of the oven which were lovely but I do wonder whether I should treat it as cake or bread... A mystery! I resolved to decide another day and popped it in the freezer!

The Result:

Both treats ended up being perfect. The cookies in particular are absolutely perfect, better than store bought cookies because they have that rustic homemade taste to them but importantly they still have the doughy texture you get from the shop bought treats. Perfect. And the brioche... Well it tastes good and looks brilliant, though I'm still flummoxed as to what I should be comparing to!

The Rocky Horror Brownie Show

My neighbours are on holiday for a week - my parents have backed this information up so I'm fairly sure it's accurate - not usually a topic of interest but it became an interesting fact following my first seriously spooky encounter in my life so far...

Yesterday's summer heat came rolling through the open window, I'd been out in it all day cycling and generally making sure my English pallor of skin retained some sort of "healthy" appearance in the small window of opportunity our British summers allow. As darkness settled over the sleepy and peaceful cul-de-sac my parents live on the heat hardly changed. Windows were thrown open down the street yet there was barely a sound other than infrequent screeching owl. Come midnight - the time I finally began to settle in my bed - there was a deadly silence.

Then I heard it.

A faint but definite sound drifting along on the faint breeze. Notes being played on a piano, four or five notes, in a row played over and over. They weren't easy to hear at first, but once you heard it it was impossible to ignore. A haunting collection of notes drifting through the dark night's air.

It was obvious which side it was coming from, it was definitely my immediate neighbour, they are the only people in the area with a piano plus, their house is certainly the only one I could hear from my bedroom window. But my obvious question was, "Who is playing that piano?"

At this time of night it would be inconsiderate of anyone to be playing any sort of musical instrument on a Sunday night, let alone on a quiet summer's evening when windows are sure to be open. Also, the neighbours with the piano happen to have two young children, why would they wake said children up with the piano? They sound demonic when they're screaming at playtime, who knows what they'd be like if suddenly woken up at just after the witching hour.

Of course, I didn't know that the neighbours were away. Had I known I might never have gotten to sleep, but for half an hour - at the very least - I strained my ears to hear this basic tune. It wasn't any kind of tune I recognised, though it sounded as if it could easily have been the music to a long forgotten nursery rhyme, and it was played over and over. The notes weren't clear or sharp in any way which surprised me considering the neighbour is a piano teacher. In fact I'd say they were catching other keys as well as the intended one, as if it was played by someone - or something - with large hulking fingers...

Of course I have no idea what to make of any of this, it doesn't make any sense at all whichever way I look at it. And to top things off, just before lunchtime today, my wonderful girlfriend and lovely mother looked into the garden after hearing a strange humming noise. There was a dark black cloud of Wasps buzzing over the neighbour in question's garden, making a sound so vicious it could be heard ten metres away. The swarm covered their garden and yet there was no one there to disturb it in anyway, not even a solitary cat. Spooky...

Anyway, enough of my odd goings-ons, this baking blog won't write itself! Today's challenge was to bake Rocky Road Brownies, including nuts, cherries and tiny marshmallows for the top. Really it was very simple, other than a little of chopping this that and the other there's nothing very complicated to see here or even to recommend in terms of tips. Though I have one minor quibble, having divided the recipe in half again to save on ingredients I realised I should have made sure I had a tin which could comfortably bake a half size brownie mixture... but at the same thickness. I had to settle with a cake tin in the end but I wasn't happy with it still. Also halving the recipe is a bit of a danger because of cooking time. It certainly doesn't halve the cooking time and so you're left with the dubious mission of checking it frequently and ensuring it is fully done, really I'd always recommend going for the full recipe unless you're very familiar with how the end result should be, it's a bit of a risk ending up with a half-done or overcooked treat.

The Result:

Mmmm, Marshmallow-ey

In the end, the brownies were always going to come out good, they just have an excellent mix of ingredients. Glace cherries work perfectly with chocolate and marshmallows add such a lovely texture to the top. Though unfortunately the consistency of the brownie was closer to that of a chocolate cake (so didn't have the lovely crunchy top and then gooey middle) it's hardly a big issue when the end product is so tasty! I think having the  full recipe is important for brownies; though it is easy to to split, I think the thickness of the end product is so essential to making them good brownies so that quantity is very important!

 

Playing Catchup

Today's efforts on the baking front were, I must say, somewhat half-hearted. It's not through lack of desire to complete the challenge or even through detestation of the idea of baking, I am in fact surprisingly still enjoying it!

But Alas, a weary teenager struggles to really get stuck into making a cake after a terrifically long day out... shopping with the girlfriend. Guys out there will be nodding in agreement and girls will be shaking their head in a disapproving way. Guys simply just don't have the stamina for a full day's shopping without constant encouragement, feeding (includes sugar/caffeine rich drinks), comfort breaks (this can include trips into shops of a non-clothes nature) and of course, the all important victorious end result (when the lovely girlfriend finally tries on a piece of clothing she: A) Was looking for B) Likes & C) Is not too pricey.

So after a tiring day wandering many of the shops in Peterborough (most of which were explored twice at least!) I got home and could barely stand let alone whip butter and sugar into a frenzy! Yet, my mind switched on suddenly and screamed at me: "DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP NOW!!" Yesterday, I had decided to forgo the baking and catch up another day but it was clearly going to be a massive effort to catch up by baking three day's worth of recipes in just one day, so my mind engaged with the task afoot and I began whipping butter and sugar into a frenzy.
Today the task was a Spiced Apple and Currant Cake - I think Apple-Currant Cake sounds better but apparently my book sucks at coming up with recipe Names aaaand recipes (see "Almond Cookies with a Cherry on Top" for more uninspiring recipe names!) - and also a small task to finish off the rest of my Hazelnuts and also complete yesterday's recipe "Hazelnut Bars."

In my last post I teased about a potential "mini-challenge" in built in my other challenge, and today's task of baking two seperate things in one day was a sort of challenge which could help me prepare for that... And I must say that it was rather a lot easier than I expected. Yes, there was an issue finding extra ingredients and weighing up and whatnot but the main area in which I provided useful was on the washing up front. It was so easy to re-use some bowls from one recipe to another, after all butter and sugar won't spoil a recipe involving butter and sugar!

I also successfully practiced the art of mini baking (ie Baking with recipes 1/4 so there is only enough for one or two people.) with the help of my mother's handy 1/8 of a teaspoon measuring spoon I could successfully get super accurate divisions of awkward measurements, woo! And once again, I have had literally no other problems to report, remarkable considering the chances of error were doubled with my quantity of recipes!

The Results:

Mmmm Appley

Mmmm (insert pun about nuts) -ey

As you can see, they look pretty damned good! The apple cake was especially delicious, it was so very moist and juicy yet not soggy (don't ask me how on earth that works!) and although the hazelnut bars were a little underwhelming in comparison, they really did work well. Though I was a little surprised at the result, which resembled a tiny sponge cake in consistency, I fully expected a biscuit like tecture but it was far closer to being lots of square cupcakes. But I am thankful for finishing the last item with hazelnuts as a main ingredient; I have pretty much run out of Nut related puns, towards the end there I was really scraping the bottom of the sack for them...

Raisin the bar for biscuit baking...

I must say that successes have been few and far between on this blog and I really don't know why. Although I am obviously an "Amateur" baker that doesn't mean that I'm by any means a complete novice, I have baked successfully in the past and have always been complimented on my "mad skillZ" (well perhaps never that exact phrase, I sincerely hope someone does say that to me at some point though!) so it's really hard to understand why I have had quite so many failures already. 

Of course, I'm not complaining! After all, they have all been edible so they can't be that bad! Plus a disastrous baking adventure is far more enjoyable to read about and write about that a wonderfully successful one would be - just imagine how pretentious and overly descriptive it would get - however it is clear that I am going to run short of disasters any day now. Suddenly the transformation will be complete and I will no longer be amateur but a Master-Baker (careful how quickly you say that one!). So what then? What will I waffle on about?!

I've decided that soon I am going to embark on a challenge which is in conjunction with this one - to those gamers out there, it would be a mini-quest or mini-game inside the main game - I will still be doing the 100 recipes in 100 days but I am going to introduce an added element to help judge the success of each baked good. Because let's face it, I am a bit of a biased judge & so are my friends and family! But More on that as it develops and becomes a reality rather than just another insane idea I have in my head.

Today's challenge was Raisin and Nutty Oatmeal Biscuits, and remarkably they are probably the first biscuits I've made which I am actually very proud of! They may be a little small (yet again I halved the ingredients in order to save some pennies and some arteries) but other than that they came out perfectly. 

They are neither too powdery nor too doughy or burnt! It's as much of a shock to me as it probably is to you! These are definitely the quality of biscuits I would expect in a really fancy "Gift Box" from one of those expensive market stalls you sometimes get popping up in the streets of posh shopping districts. Except they were made by my good self in the comfort of my old family home. Perfect!

The Result: 

Viennese Jam Snore-Cakes

You know when you have a lie down after a long day's work, and it just feels so fantastic? Well that's what happened yesterday, I worked from 10-5 at the Maud Foster Windmill in Boston. I lugged flour about, filled bags with flour and mixed baking powder with - you guessed it - flour to make self-raising flour by the sackload. Although it may not have been the hardest day ever it was following on from a busy weekend out in the sun and travelling hundreds of miles, and that can be tiring.

So my little lie down was so very good... that it turned into a snooze. Then that snooze turned into a fully fledged hour long nap. Suffice to say that this did not leave me with very much time between work and going off to see some of my friends yesterday evening. Hence why I'm posting yesterday's blog today.

On waking up an hour before I was intending on heading out I jumped off my bed with surprising athleticism for someone who's been baking every day for the last three weeks and who'd just had a nap! I rushed downstairs to begin baking the most basic thing I could remember seeing in the book I hadn't already done. Viennese Jam Shortcakes are little cupcake style shortcakes which blur the line between biscuit and cupcake quite cleverly... and in my rush to do them I ended up over cooking them slightly.

Thankfully this was the only error in an otherwise easy recipe. Thanks to a friend of mine (and avid reader) I now know how to use a piping bag a little more efficiently and successfully squeezed mixture into cases without so much as a drop of unbaked goods anywhere on the surfaces (shocking I know!).

The Result: 

So they do look rather nice and dainty as one would hope, perfect for a lovely outside picnic in this lovely summer weather we've been having... Well, the weather we had this weekend anyway - As I read someone say recently "Summer was my favourite day this year..." -

But unfortunately, though they look rather delightful and cute looking, to my increasingly high standards of baked goods I just don't think they cut the mustard. The taste was lovely but I thought they were a little powdery for my liking, perhaps it was down to leaving them a little too long in the oven because of my rushing about or just because the recipe book I'm using is terrible and the recipes crappy. Who knows... 

Later, Banana Loaf, which should be fun considering I dislike Bananas...

Aww nuts, these flapjacks didn't go too well...

It's been a couple of days since I wrote a post on here but don't worry, yet again I have still been baking as much as ever. And naturally have a couple of anecdotes to update you on, we all know nothing ever seems to go according to plan with me!
Yesterday I attempted to bake some Nutty Flapjacks and of course that is certainly easier said than done...
The eponymous nuts in the recipe were Hazelnuts and my book recommended chopped hazelnuts which I had a look for in the supermarket but to no avail. Perhaps it simply meant buy whole Hazelnuts and then chop them... But regardless it took a while for my sun stroked brain to comprehend this idea! So I left with a bag of unchopped hazels.
In the style of Homer Simpson's inventions, I thought that I could think of a quicker way in which to chop said nuts. I say chop, I really mean pulverize into a powdered form! I put them in a plastic bag and used my masculine delicacy to destroy them with a rolling pin. Result: trapped air in the bag meant it exploded, sending nuts flying across the counter. The lazy man's way turned out causing a lot more hassle and tidying up for myself; I guess that's Karma for you!
In my infinite wisdom and careful planning (*ahem*) I had decided to bash on with these flapjacks before I'd even decided on what kind of tray I'd bake them in. Of course, as it turned out, I needed a square/rectangle inch deep baking tray... Something I do not own! But far from letting that bother me, I delved into my cupboard to find my cake tin and ended up with a circular flapjack pizza (cut into triangles of course!).

The Result:

Mmmm, Crunchy!

So as you can see they can't be that bad ( I ate most of it before I remembered to take a photo!) but there are a couple of recommendations I would like to make. First, If you decide to make nutty flapjacks make sure the nuts are thoroughly chopped and/or crushed. The fact they were still quite whole means that the mixture doesn't hold together as easily as it could do. Also, be wary about halving recipes. I halved this one because I didn't have many nuts (and by gum are they pricey!) but I didn't consider that in doing so i'd be making the mixture spread more thinly in the baking tin, so not only did I end up with very thin flapjacks but also, they were far harder than the traditional gooey ness of the pinnacle of flap & jack based cooking because the cooking time wasn't reduced accordingly. I make the mistakes so you don't have to!

Tune in tomorrow morning to find out how I got on with today's recipe, Viennese Shortcakes...  

Macaruins?

Macaroons are something I had never even heard of until this challenge. Though I understand that they are rather a lot more widespread than I thought when I discovered them. To those uninitiated - like my good self - they are basically tiny meringues sandwiched together with a filling of some sort.
To my absolute terror and shock, they are the very first thing in my challenge which has had zero dairy products... That's right, no butter, no cream, no thing to make my heart whimper and suffocate as I choke down those extra calories. Though I must say, the heart aches at the absence of butter from today's diet, I feel a little emotional about it... Well, as emotional as one can get about food!
Another first on today's challenge was that it was the first time I'd ever had a chance to use a piping bag. I sincerely hope it will be the last as well, I think that it might have been the most useless cooking tool I've ever had the displeasure to use. Although when full of mixture it did an excellent job of making lovely rounds of macaroon mixture when it was running low it just created a mess... Literally, I had nut mixture all over my hands, two spoons were unrecognisable from the mess and a spatula was really feeling the strain of usage. In short, I don't think I've ever had a less useless kitchen implement ever. For a start, it took an absolute age trying to spoon the mixture into the bag to begin with, and I'm lucky I had my lovely Sous Chef ( My beautiful girlfriend) to help. On my own it would have been pretty much impossible; how on earth are you meant to scoop something into a paper bag without it losing its shape and flopping all over the place. Macaroon mix was on the outside of the bag, the inside of the bag, my hands, cutlery and of course all the surfaces I'd even come anywhere near to touching. In short, I wish I'd just spooned it onto the baking sheets!
However badly this process ended up being, somehow everything went swimmingly from there onwards. Thankfully I carefully followed the recipe and left them to settle at room temperature for half an hour ( two weeks ago I may have misread that and cooked it for thirty minutes instead!) before baking for the last ten minutes.

The Result: 

Ok, let's face it, they aren't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing baked goods I've ever made and they certainly aren't quite as circular as the picture in the book looked. yet, they taste absolutely delicious, they are far softer and dainty than I had imagined, they certainly aren't biscuits or cakes but are, I think, far better than both! I am looking forward to making the vanilla macaroons (coming to a blog post near you soon) but there's something nicer about scraping the nutella into these knowing that they are going to taste gorgeous! They're a real treat! 

Almonday morning cookies

I have had possibly the most productive day I could have had (other than perhaps the last couple of hours spent playing the classic PC game Rise of Nations...) today. After an - all too rushed - awakening a couple of minutes to nine, only seconds before my driving instructor pulled into the drive, I had a really rather enjoyable driving lesson (no, I still haven't passed my test at 19 though I should have by the end of this challenge...). And back before most Uni students are even awake on most days off I got straight down to revising for my final year exam - which looms ever closer - this Thursday afternoon. I won't lie, I was kicking some serious revision ass. I had written two essays on existentialism and the economics of the new industrial estate (sounds rather complicated doesn't it... mainly because it is!) before lunch, so I decided I'd take a break to bake some delicious (but rather boringly named) "Almond Cookies with a Cherry On Top."
-Yes the name does what is required of a name but somehow I feel it is lacking in a bit of invention, or pizazzz. How about Cherry Surprises? (Almond being the surprise) Or Almond Suprise? (cherry being the surprise)... Or perhaps something which has no surprises at all but is still inventive! -
Perhaps things could have gone better... Firstly, I decided (for the good of my health and wallet) that halving the recipe would be necessary. A bad idea, I always forget one thing if I do this, today I ended up not halving the quantity for the amount of Almond the recipe asks for. Oh dear.
Secondly, I completely didn't read the book at all (again). I accidentally sifted the flour into the butter and sugar before I even began to melt the butter. But a bit of re-sifting meant it went into the pan largely flour-less.
I then added in what I thought was almond extract... Naturally, it was the vanilla extract! I definitely need some new form of storing all my spices, herbs and extracts in a way which is more easily "filed" ... But I figured that since I'd accidentally doubled the amount of ground almond I put in the recipe this might be ok...
So I ploughed on regardless of my challenge to do every recipe in the book TO THE LETTER , I figure they're more like guidelines anyway! As you might be able to tell from my writing style today, that this was no disaster at all. Usually I'd be throwing exclamation marks all over the place, inventing adjectives and filling in expletives' middle letters with asterisks by now. Yet, I'm as cool as a cucumber, calm as the lull before the storm and as collected as... pokémon cards. And why might that be??
IT ALL WORKED OUT!! Somehow, miraculously, everything went completely and extraordinarily to plan! Despite all these relatively major fudge ups the biscuits came out as right as rain, as tasty as chocolate, as delicious as knowing a dirty secret about your boss. They are lovely! I suppose it's about time my luck turned in my baking, every tiny mistake I;ve made so far really blew up in my face but today it all went swimmingly!
Oh wait. I forgot one thing... Remember I mentioned that I'd been revising really well until I decided to take a break? Well, I suppose something bad had to happen after all those mistakes; I've written no more than one or two more words of revision since the biscuits came out the oven. Dammit, I guess that's karma for you!

The Result: 

Mmmmmmiraculous

Bargain Hunting and Biscuit Making

As I've mentioned numerous times during my challenge, I'm a student. I therefore have very little money; I don't have a job and I live entirely on my student loan. As you may have worked out from the various unusual ingredients and the quantity of baked goods I've been making, this is going to be a very expensive task.

Today was all about finding ingredients for the absolute minimum and in the homely city of Winchester where I live that makes for quite a task... especially when you don't have a car!
Yet, I've become a bargain hunter. I've found that by far the cheapest place for eggs is Iceland, they are a shocking £1.75 for 15 large eggs. OK, they are from caged hens but I'm afraid morals go out of the window when you're getting through a dozen a week!

I've had to be every single type of sugar on the face of this earth (or so it seems) but the problem with having these more obscure types is of course price and availabilty. I paid a shocking amount for demerara but somehow Muscovado sugar was actually cheaper than the light brown sugar. Who'd have thought it!

Anyway, today was a test in getting all of these today in one trip. I had Oranges, eggs, sugar and golden syrup to get. First I went to iceland, then I went to poundland, then I went to, the sainsbury's superstore (a two mile run) and finally to my local corner shop which had accidentally under priced Golden Syrup by £1.50 per bottle. I bought two. In short, I spent a lot of time and effort attempting to cut costs and still spent a fortune on foods, this money is almost literally going straight down the toilet...
But to the recipe, today was chocolate orange sandwich biscuits. These are by far the most interesting biscuits I've ever made, there is something so satisfying about making a creamy-chocolate filling and squishing two biscuits together onto it. The resultant biscuit is really quite remarkable actually. Both tasty and surprisingly far less messy to eat than I'd imagined.

Imagine eating a really full sandwich, you take that first bite and crunch through the crusty bread, feel the touch of the spongey bread and then the soft juicy filling... dribbling all the way down your hand after the bite. I thought that would happen here but luckily the biscuit was doughy enough to allow a bite to crumble straight through and not cause a filling fiasco. And to top it all off, they look like colour-inverted burgers, wonderful.

The Result:

Mmm filling-ey...

Yep, they look gooey and crunchy and lovely. But I have to say the orange really made them, I love how a little bit of Orange rind in a recipe like this can change them from being probably too rich and choclatey to just right. All in all, a great success!

Recipe 10 - Classic Oatmeal Cookies:

Ingredients for 15:
 Plain Flour 70g 
Butter 90g 
Demerara Sugar 140g 
Small Egg 1 
Water 2 Tbsps 
Vanilla Extract 1 tsp 
Plain Rolled Oats 190g 
Salt 0.5 tsps 
Bicarbonate of soda 0.25g 

Method: 

1: Cream butter and sugar together then beat in the egg, water & vanilla extract until smooth. 
2: Mix the oats, flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a separate bowl. Slowly mix into the creamy mixture. 
3: Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet making sure they’re well spaced. 
4: Cook until golden brown for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and sheet and leave to cool on a wire rack.

See how I fared at trying the recipe here.

These cookies smell oat so strange...

My apologies for the absentee blogs this weekend (you may have noticed I'm now one behind,I'll be playing catchup soon!). The reason for this is because I've travelled the length of the country this weekend and so have had very little time to blog. As many commuters will tell you from time to time you have a day travelling which can be described using only four letter words I will not utter here.

Naturally, it all started with a simple mistake in preparation for the journey, namely, I forgot my debit card. I had walked for half an hour in the baking Friday heat to get on my train but couldn't claim my tickets without my debit card. Here follows a lot of running, swearing, sweating, and complaining loudly to anyone who would care to listen (myself mainly). Of course I missed my intended train so that meant I missed the train I had tickets reserved for. I don't know if you've ever experienced advanced rail bookings but they're pretty fussy about you having the right one. Using my utmost cunning I got away with the wrong one but irregardless it made for a stressful afternoon. Anyway, to cut an almost finished long story short, there was no desire to bake on Friday or after 9-5 work on Saturday ergo I'm one day behind.

Anyway, for today's recipe I went with an old classic, oatmeal cookies, and in general they were pretty darned easy. Just a little mixing of dry ingredients and popping it in the oven! Though the most unusual result came out when finished. Yes, they looked lovely and oaty, they even tasted lovely and oaty yet somehow they smelt quite strongly of sweetcorn... Yep, the yellow stuff. Why? If I knew I reckon this blog would be "professional home baking" instead of amateur! But there you have it, just another strange result of following the recipe to the letter.

You'll be happy to know I've actually written up all the recipes I haven't yet published so they'll be uploaded any moment now! Thanks for reading!
The Result:

Recipe 9- Chocolate Caramel Shortbread:

Ingredients for 12:
Base:
Plain Flour 175g 
Butter 115g 
Golden Caster Sugar 55g 

Filling and Topping:
Butter 175g 
Golden Caster Sugar 115g 
Golden Syrup 3 Tbsps 
Canned Condensed Milk 400g 
Plain Chocolate 200g 

Method: 

1: Grease and line the base of a 9inch shallow square tin. 
2: Using a food processor bind together butter, sugar and flour then press it into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden. 
3: Meanwhile, make the filling. Gently heat butter, sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk until the sugar begins to dissolve whilst constantly stirring. Bring to the boil and simmer for six to eight minutes stirring constantly and ensuring the entire mixture is moving (un-stirred mixture at the bottom will burn). When the mixture becomes thick immediately remove from the heat and add to the base. Chill the base in the fridge (about half an hour). 
4: Melt the chocolate and pour over the caramel and shortbread base. Chill in the fridge again until the chocolate is solid. Cut into slices and serve.

Check out how I fared at the recipe here!