Cakes & Bakes: Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies

Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies

We have a lovely glass cake dome which usually sits on the dining room windowsill. Normally, it houses a tasty treat to accompany our afternoon cuppa, but it’s been empty for about 2 weeks now… and there’s nothing worse than an empty cake dome. A tray of these delicious toasted coconut & white chocolate blondie was the perfect quick solution to the crisis!

Toasted dessicated coconut

“What’s a ‘blondie’?”, I hear you say. Well, it’s like a brownie but without the addition of cocoa or milk/dark chocolate. It also usually includes brown sugar, but I used white caster sugar so it wouldn’t overpower the flavours of the white chocolate and coconut.

Pre-toasting the dessicated coconut really brings out the nutty flavour – don’t leave out this initial stage. Plus, it makes your kitchen smell heavenly!

creamed butter & sugar with egg Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies mixture in a bowl

The milk chocolate chunks give the blondies a luscious, creamy mouth-feel. You could use a bag of white chocolate chips instead, if you prefer. I like biting into the odd big chunk.

Cooked toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies in a square, lined cake tin

It’s a really delicious treat, and really quick to mix and cook… an hour, tops.

Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies cut into squares

Click here or on the image below to save my toasted coconut & white chocolate blondie recipe to Pinterest

Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies recipe

Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies

Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies

Cook Time 20 minutes
Cuisine American
Servings 9 pieces

Equipment

  • large mixing bowl
  • wire balloon whisk
  • rubber spatula
  • 20cm/8" square cake tin

Ingredients
  

  • 115 g salted butter softened
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 135 g plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 100 g white chocolate roughly chopped
  • 75 g dessicated coconut

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  • Grease & line a 20cm/8" square cake tin with parchment paper
  • In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet pan add the dessicated coconut and shake to level out. Put the pan in the oven for about 3 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and give the contents a stir and shake to level out again. Keep doing this until the coconut is uniformly golden brown. Set aside to cool. You could do this step on a stove-top using a wok or other steep-sided pan
  • In a large mixing bowl and using a wire balloon whisk, cream the butter & caster sugar until light and fluffy
  • Add the egg and whisk until fully incorporated
  • Mix in the vanilla extract
  • Sift over the plain flour and baking powder. Fold in using the spatula
  • Stir in the white chocolate and cooled, toasted dessicated coconut until well mixed in
  • Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level out using the spatula or the back of a spoon. Make sure to push the blondie dough into the corners
  • Bake for 20 minutes, until the top turns a lovely golden brown
  • Remove from the oven and leave the blondie in the tin for 5 minutes. Lift the blondie (still in the parchment paper) and allow to cool completely on a wire rack
  • Slice the blondie into 9 equal sized squares
Toasted coconut & white chocolate blondies ingredients
Keyword blondies, chocolate, coconut

Cakes & Bakes: White chocolate & cherry cookies

Stack of white chocolate & cherry cookies with mug of coffee

After the success of last week’s fig & pecan cookies – I wanted to make some more. They’re just the ticket to have with our mid-day mug of coffee.

Creamed butter & sugar with egg in a mixing bowl

I looked in my store cupboard to see what was available; it was fruit and nut last time, so I decided that white chocolate & cherry cookies would make a good combo.

Balls of white chocolate & cherry cookie dough on a lined baking sheet

Ready-made white chocolate chips would be the ideal, but a bar simply whacked with a rolling pin helps with stress relief and tastes exactly the same!

White chocolate & cherry cookies straight out of the oven

The cookies are gorgeous – soft, chewy, sweet and buttery. They’re best on the same day or the day after… but you probably won’t encounter any problems polishing them off in that time-frame.

Click here or on the image below to save my white chocolate & cherry cookies recipe to Pinterest

White chocolate & cherry cookies recipe

Stack of white chocolate & cherry cookies with mug of coffee

White chocolate & cherry cookies

Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings 24 cookies

Equipment

  • large baking sheet
  • large mixing bowl
  • wire balloon whisk
  • rubber spatula or wooden spoon

Ingredients
  

  • 135 g salted butter softened
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 180 g plain flour
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100 g white chocolate chopped
  • 100 g glacé cherries chopped

Instructions
 

  • In a large mixing bowl and using a wire whisk, cream the softened butter, vanilla extract and caster sugar
  • Whisk in the egg until completely mixed in
  • Sift over the flour and bicarbonate of soda, Fold in using a spatula or wooden spoon until fully combined
  • Stir in the chopped chocolate and cherries
  • Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour
  • Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/ Gas mark 3
  • Grease & line a large baking sheet with baking parchment
  • Scoop out about a dessert spoon of the cold dough at a time, roll it between your palms to form a ball
  • Put the ball on the prepared baking sheet (only put 4 or 5 balls on the sheet at a time, leaving lots of space between each ball, as the cookies spread a fair amount during cooking)
  • Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until they turn lightly golden around the edges
  • Allow to cool and firm up for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring them to a wire rack for at least a further 10 minutes
  • Repeat stages 8-11 until all the cookie dough has been used
White chocolate & cherry cookies ingredients
Keyword biscuits, cherries, chocolate, cookies, white chocolate

Cakes & Bakes: White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies

White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve been venturing back into Aberystwyth to pop to the shops. We visited Ty Coed Treehouse in their brand new home opposite the town’s train station. It’s the kind of shop where you can pick up ingredients that you don’t always find in a supermarket.

malt, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl Adding dry ingredients to cookie mixture

I’ve been looking for malt extract for a while, and they had it in stock. I’ve used it to make Paul Hollywood’s malt loaf in the past, but this time, I’ve made a batch of white chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies.

Chopped white chocolate and hazelnuts with cookie mixture White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookie dough on a baking sheet

In the early 20th century, when sweets weren’t as ubiquitous as they are now, children would eat spoonfuls of malt extract. Malt extract was used as a nutritional supplement given alongside cod liver oil… it probably helped to mask the awfulness!

White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies

The cookies were lovely, with that particular taste reminiscent of Ovaltine and those childhood malt biscuits with cows stamped on the front. The white chocolate and hazelnuts go really well – as would milk chocolate with pecans or dark chocolate with Brazil nuts.

Click here or on the image below to save the recipe to Pinterest

White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies recipe

White chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies
Yields 24
Cook Time
18 min
Cook Time
18 min
Ingredients
  1. 125g/4½oz butter, softened
  2. 115g/4oz malt extract
  3. 55g/2oz soft brown sugar
  4. 1 large egg
  5. 300g/10½oz self-raising flour
  6. 100g/3½oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
  7. 140g/5oz hazelnuts, roughly choppedWhite chocolate & hazelnut malt cookies ingredients
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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
  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  2. Line two oven trays with parchment paper
  3. Process the butter, malt extract, sugar and egg in a food processor until well combined
  4. Add the flour and pulse until just combined
  5. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts
  6. Roll tablespoons of the dough into balls and place on prepared trays about 4cm apart
  7. Flatten balls to about 1 cm thick and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden
  8. Cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely
Notes
  1. Store in an airtight container for up to a week
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Adapted from Saunder's Malt Extract
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: White and dark chocolate cheesecake

White and dark chocolate cheesecake | H is for Home

We’ve had our wood-fired kitchen range off for the past few sunny days as we’ve been having barbecues in the garden each evening. So I was looking for a no-bake cake to make for this week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe.

Cheesecake base ingredients | H is for Home

I found a great chilled marble chocolate cheesecake recipe in Mary Berry’s At Home cookbook. I’ve rechristened it white and dark chocolate cheesecake. I hope you don’t mind, Mrs Berry!

3 graduated, glass mixing bowls with cream cheese, white chocolate and double cream | H is for Home 3 graduated, glass mixing bowls with cream cheese, white chocolate and double cream | H is for Home

The cheese and double cream were whipped together. Next, the vanilla extract and white chocolate (which I melted over a bowl of water that I boiled in the kettle) were added. I got Justin to do the melted dark chocolate marbling stage – he has a much better technique than me!

Spooning dark chocolate over cheesecake | H is for Home Swirling dark chocolate into cheesecake | H is for Home

It was then chilled in the fridge for a few hours – no cooking required. After that, I went right round the edge with a hot knife so that it slipped out of its loose-bottomed tin. If you stand the base of the tin on top of a can (of beans, for example) it makes this stage much easier.

White and dark chocolate cheesecake | H is for Home

The cheesecake was creamy and airy, light as a cloud. Not over-sweet or sickly as there was no added sugar. Another successful cheesecake creation!

White and dark chocolate cheesecake | H is for Home #cheesecake #cake #nobakecheesecake #nobake #chocolatecheesecake #chocolate #whitechocolate #dessert #recipe

Save this white and dark chocolate cheesecake recipe to Pinterest

White and dark chocolate cheesecake
Serves 6
For the base
  1. 100g/oz dark chocolate digestive biscuits, crushed
  2. 50g/oz butter, melted
For the filling
  1. 200g/oz Belgian white chocolate, chopped
  2. 300ml/fl oz double cream
  3. 300g/oz full-fat cream cheese
  4. ½ tsp vanilla extract
  5. 100g/oz dark chocolateWhite and dark chocolate cheesecake ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Line the base of a 20cm/8in round, deep spring-form tin with a circle of baking parchment
  2. To make the base, mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press into the base of the tin. Level using the back of a spoon
  3. To make the filling, put the chopped white chocolate in to a bowl and sit over a pan of just hot water. Leave to melt (but don't allow it to get too hot), stirring occasionally, then set aside to cool a little
  4. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the double cream
  5. Pour the remainder into a large bowl, then add the cream cheese and vanilla. Whisk, using an electric hand whisk, until smooth
  6. Add the melted white chocolate and whisk again until smooth and thick
  7. Spoon about 6 tablespoons of the white chocolate filling into a mixing bowl
  8. Spoon the remaining mixture into the tin and smooth over the top
  9. Chill for 30 minutes
  10. Add the reserved double cream to the reserved white chocolate mixture and mix together until smooth. Spoon over the set mixture in the tin
  11. Melt the dark chocolate as before and then drizzle over the top of the cheesecake and use the blade of a knife or skewer to swirl the toppings together
  12. Chill for a minimum of 2 hours, turn out and cut into wedges to serve
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Adapted from Mary Berry at Home
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/