Thursday 27 February 2014

Peanut Butter, Hazelnut & Chocolate Chunk Cookies


These bad boys are just want you need for an injection of sugar and life! They can lift my mood in an instant. 

The roasted hazelnuts give them an extra lift and bite and with the recipe below making up to 18cookies you can enjoy for a few days! I tend to make the dough wrap them in cling film and make them in small quantities. The dough can also be easily frozen or kept wrapped up in cling film in the fridge for 2-3days. 
I whip these up in my kitchen aid and they're ready in minutes once you have everything weighed out and ready to go! 

Ingredients: 
75g crunchy peanut butter 
50g roasted hazelnuts 
75g soft butter 
100g self-raising flour 
25g cocoa powder 
75g chopped good quality chocolate (white & milk) 
125g soft brown sugar 
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 
1 teaspoon of baking powder 
1 egg  

Equipment list: 2 x baking trays, parchment paper, electric mixer/beater, wooden spoon, cling film, teaspoon, mixing bowl, chopping board, sharp knives, ovenproof dish. 


Begin by preheating the oven to 180DC. 
Arrange the hazelnuts on a oven proof dish and roast in a hot oven for 15-20minutes. Once roasted removed from the oven place on a towel, cover and roll to easily remove the skins. 
Next roughly chop the hazelnuts into small chunks. 
In the mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and peanut butter until soft and creamy. 
Add in the egg and the teaspoon of vanilla essence and continue to mix until dissolved. 
Next sieve in the flour in small batches. Toss in the chopped chocolate chunks and chopped hazelnuts and form the mixture into a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 1hour to harden and set. 

Once chilled and harden roll the mixture into 18 equal size balls and divide between two baking trays leaving at least 2-3cm between each cookie. flatten the balls with the back of a spoon and bake for 10-12 minutes in the hot oven. 



Sunday 23 February 2014

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

Feeling a little snuffly after being away in London town for a few days this week and since I do not enjoy lemsip or any hot lemony drinks, I decided to make a batch of lemon drizzle cupcakes! They should boost the old immune system and vitamin C level right back up! (Plus I have not baked in over a week and I’m starting to have withdrawal symptoms!)

I absolutely adore lemon drizzle cake. I first discovered it in Starbucks not long after I first moved to Dublin and it always reminds me of that exciting time. 
I like to think mine lemon drizzle cake is a lot more moist and delicate to other various types available in coffee shops.  Also I’ve recently decided to make the mixture into large cupcakes and decorate with lemon buttercream icing and a touch of grated lemon zest instead of tray bakes which I used to make.   My recipe is adapted from a few different sources and I tend to like to have a good dollop of lemon in the cake mixture to give the best flavour and moisture.  

Ingredients for cake: 
200g butter (soft at room temperature)
200g fine caster sugar 
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence 
210g self-raising flour 
4 eggs (at room temperature)
2 teaspoons of baking powder 
grated zest of 1 lemon 
juice of 1 full lemon 

Ingredients for lemon buttercream icing 
100g soft butter 
220g fine powdered icing sugar 
juice of one lemon 
tiny drop of good quality lemon yellow icing 
rind of one lemon very finely chopped to sprinkle on top 


Method: 
Firstly I'm very critical when it comes to weighing ingredients properly so I do think it is vital to invest in a good digital weighing scales for your ingredients. I got my one in red to match my red kitchen aid in argos for a very reasonable €13! 

Next preheat the oven to 180DC and line a 12 hole muffin tin.  



Once everything is weighed I start by beating the soft butter first in the mixer until nicely soft and workable. Next add in the caster sugar and beat together till evenly mixed and smooth. While this is being blended I tend to grate the lemon rind and I also finely chop this as it can be undesirable to come across large pieces of lemon in the madeira mixture. 


Once the sugar and butter is nicely mixed next add in each of the four eggs one at a time and mix in-between to ensure curdling does not occur. 
After all the eggs are added in sieve in the flour in small quantities and mix again until all added. 
Finally add the lemon rind and the lemon juice and stir till evenly dissolved. 
Spoon the mixture into a muffin tin lined with 12 paper cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 16-20minutes depending on your oven. You know the cupcakes are done when you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Leave to rest on a wire tray for at least 20minutes before icing. 
Ready for the oven at 180DC. 



To make the Yellow lemon buttercream Icing:  
Beat the butter in the mixer until soft and slowly add in the icing sugar in batches. Add in the lemon juice and the yellow food colouring. Stir until you have a nice smooth thick icing. Add the icing to a piping bag with a nozzle. Decorate your cakes as desired and finally sprinkle with the finely grated lemon rind! 

Enjoy! 


Monday 17 February 2014

Where do I start?




Hello Everyone,

My name is Tracy and it is about time that I finally start to write about my love for food and begin to  record my experiences of my love affair with good food.

I'm very lucky in that my job allows me to explore my creativity with food as I work with teenagers in a secondary school teaching the subject Home Economics. It's a fantastic job, one which I value very highly and one which I always knew would be the avenue best suited for me.

While I spend most of my day in my classroom school kitchen I tend to race home in the evenings to do the same thing in my home kitchen. I believe that in itself is testament to my love of cookery itself.

So what am I into and what do I bake/cook?
The answer is simple, it all depends on my mood. I find it very difficult to do a weekly grocery shop as I may not feel like eating half of the items in my fridge on a particular day and most days I tend to daydream about trying out new dishes for dinner or baking some new delight discovered that day in work. Of course this tends to be very expensive and does take it's toll on my wallet, but it's worth every cent in my eyes.

I look forward to developing this blog and posting some of my recipes and secrets and most of all I hope you enjoy it and take something away from this,

Thanks for reading,


Tracy