Cakes & Bakes: Honey almond brittle biscuits

As with many of you out there, there’s been severe lurgy in the H is for Home household this week. Well to be honest, we’ve contracted a succession of bugs stretching back 2 months at least – one after another, sometimes overlapping. And that’s after not having had a sniff of a cold for the previous 5 years. It’s certainly been quite a grim winter. When you’re feeling under the weather, any baking has to be quick and easy. These honey almond brittle biscuits seemed like the perfect answer today.

The preparation was literally a ten minute job – and they then less than ten minutes to bake. A small price to pay for some delicious home-baked biscuits.

And they were indeed delicious. The almonds and honey were a very good combination. There are lots of other potential ingredients to experiment with – peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans and coconut to name but a few. The biscuits were a lovely blend of soft gooey centres and crisp, crunchy edges. A little treat is always nice when your feeling sorry for yourself !

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Honey almond brittle biscuits

2018-01-24 14:40:50

Ingredients

15g/½oz butter
15g/½oz double cream
75g/2⅔oz honey
35g/1oz caster sugar
⅛ tsp salt
½tsp lemon juice
25g/⅗oz plain flour
100g/3½oz flaked almonds

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Instructions

Melt the butter in a small saucepan on a low heat
Stir in the cream, honey, sugar, salt, lemon juice and flour, until combined
Add the almonds and stir to combine
Spoon teaspoonfuls of the mix on to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Give each one lots of room as they spread out quite a bit while cooking
Flatten slightly with the back of a wet spoon
Bake at 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 for seven minutes
Cool on a wire rack before eating

By Tamal Ray

Adapted from The Guardian Food & Drink

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Hobnobs

It’s been a while since biscuits were featured in our Thursday Cakes & Bakes post, so we started listing the shop-bought biscuits we purchase regularly for potential ideas. Hobnobs sprang to mind – both plain and chocolate coated varieties. Lots of other people must like them too as Hobnobs always make the top ten list for Britain’s favourite biscuit. So today we have a home-made version of this classic brew accompaniment.

It’s a very straightforward recipe and method… and a short cooking time. You could rustle up a batch in the time it takes to get to the shop!

The resulting biscuits are golden brown and very delicious indeed. We left half plain and covered half in chocolate to cater for both preferences. Just one last decision – tea or coffee.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later!

Home-made Hobnobs

2017-10-25 16:18:49

Yields 30

Ingredients

140g/5oz butter
140g/5oz sugar
1tbs milk
1tsp golden syrup
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
140g/5oz self-raising flour
110g/4oz porridge oats

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2
Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and set aside
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale & fluffy
Beat in the milk, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda
Stir in the flour and oats, combining well
Divide and shape into 25-30 equal-sized balls (about a desertspoon-ful of dough for each) rolling between the palms of your hands
Place 5cm/2" apart on the prepared baking sheet - they spread out a lot during cooking!
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
Transfer to a wire rack to cool
Store in an airtight container

Adapted from The English Kitchen

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Triple chocolate chip cookies

Another week, another Cakes & Bakes chocolate recipe. But not just any old chocolate, but TRIPLE chocolate chip cookies!

These are truly blow the diet, straight up delectable. Chock-full (see what I did there?) of dark and white chocolate chips, cocoa powder and sugar.

If you’d prefer you can make tiddly little ones using teaspoons of cookie dough rather than dessertspoonfuls. That way, you’re only having a little morsel at a time. Me? I prefer my cookies soft, chewy and the size of frisbees!

Justin tends to prefer savoury snacks to sweet ones, but even he’s contributing to the rapid disappearance of this particular batch.

Click here to pin the recipe on Pinterest for later!

Triple chocolate chip cookies

2017-04-18 08:13:46

Yields 13

Cook Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Ingredients

115g/4oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
45g/1½oz cocoa powder
pinch of salt
75g/3oz butter, softened
75g/3oz golden caster sugar
75g/3oz soft brown sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
100g/3½oz dark chocolate chips
100g/3½oz white chocolate chips

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease a baking sheet or line it with a parchment paper
In a small mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt
In another larger mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar (using an electric mixer is best)
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract
Add the flour mixture and beat well on a low speed
Using a wooden spoon, stir in 70g of the dark chocolate chips and 70g of the white chocolate chips
Drop dessertspoonfuls of the cookie dough on to the prepared baking sheet and lightly press each with the back of a spoon. Space them 2½-5cm / 1-2 inches apart as they spread quite a bit in the cooking
Dot the top of each cookie with 3 or so of the reserved dark & white chocolate chips pressing lightly into the dough
Bake for 10-12 minutes
Allow to cool on a wire rack while you make the next batch. Repeat until all the cookie dough has been used (My large baking tray took 3 batches to use up all of the dough)
Store in an air-tight, lidded container for up to 3 days

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Chocolate chip & brazil nut cookies

The focus is back on Rio this week with the start of the Paralympics. Which made me remember that I still have half a bag of Brazil nuts in the cupboard leftover from making a double espresso brazil nut cake a few weeks ago.

I’ve been in something of a cookie & biscuit frame of mind recently, so I thought I’d use them up by making some chocolate chip & brazil nut cookies.

I use quite a lot of chocolate in my baking – cocoa, dark chocolate, mocha – but I’ve never used chocolate chips before. In most recipes that call for chocolate chips, I’ve always just used chopped up chocolate pieces.

Chocolate chip cookies I’ll make an exception for, because those perfect little dots of chocolate are just essential!

The recipe makes over 2 dozen lovely, soft cookies. They’re quick & easy and the perfect thing to get the kids involved in making.

Chocolate chip & brazil nut cookies

2017-04-12 08:49:09

Yields 30

Cook Time

10 min

Cook Time

10 min

Ingredients

115g/4oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
75g/3oz butter, softened
150g/5oz golden caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
100g/3½oz dark chocolate chips
75g/2½oz brazil nuts, chopped

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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease a baking sheet or line it with a parchment paper
In a small mixing bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
In another larger mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar (using an electric mixer is best)
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract
Add the flour mixture and beat well on a low speed
Using a wooden spoon, stir in 70g of the chocolate chips and the chopped brazil nuts
Drop teaspoonfuls of the cookie dough on to the prepared baking sheet. Space them 2½-5cm / 1-2 inches apart as they spread quite a bit in the cooking
Dot the top of each cookie with 3 or so of the reserved chocolate chips pressing lightly into the dough
Bake for 10-12 minutes until they just begin to turn a golden brown
Allow to cool on a wire rack while you make the next batch. Repeat until all the cookie dough has been used (My large baking tray took 3 batches to use up all of the dough)
Store in an air-tight lidded container for up to 3 days

Adapted from The Great Big Cookie Book

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/