White Chocolate, Almond & Apricot Cookies

As you may be able to tell from this blog, I love to experiment with new recipes and ideas in the kitchen.  To be honest, I'm not even sure I can ever follow a recipe exactly word for word, not that I have a problem with being told what to do, but more often it's that I'm not usually organised enough to have all the ingredients in the cupboard in advance, so I have to improvise.
 
This cookie recipe came about in just such a way.  I was in a baking mood, and while flicking through my copy of River Cottage Everyday for inspiration I stumbled upon a recipe for Ten Minute Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I was in a greedy mood and the speedy rewards promised by this recipe made it instantly appealing.  I didn't have any chocolate chips in the cupboard, but I happen to think that the flavour combination I tried instead was a real winner, so I thought I would share it with you.

White Chocolate, Almond & Apricot Cookies
Makes 14-16 generous cookies
 
125g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
A pinch of sea salt
50g white chocolate, chopped
75g blanched almonds, roughly chopped
75g dried apricots, chopped
 
1.  Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan assisted) and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Gently melt the butter in a small saucepan.  Meanwhile add the sugars to a large bowl, then beat in the melted butter well with a wooden spoon. 
3.  Next beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.  Once it's nicely mixed, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl and stir them in.  Finally add the chopped white chocolate, almonds and apricots and you'll end up with a nice sloppy mixture.
4.  Spoon blobs of the mixture onto your prepared trays using a dessertspoon - make sure you leave about 4cm between each as the cookies really spread out while cooking. If you don't then you'll just end up with one big cookie!
5. Place in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are just beginning to turn golden brown.  As with all biscuits, they will firm up as they cool so don't worry if they still feel very soft.
6. Leave on the hot trays for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy baking :o) 

Brighton Bakery B&B

Since Melissa and I moved down to Brighton our friends and family have been taking advantage of a visit to the seaside most weekends and we've been very happy to oblige.  Although the Brighton marathon was last Sunday, we paid it tribute this weekend with a hatrick of couples that came down to visit. 

When we came back from our travels, Melissa and I made a pact that we're not going to buy any bread from the shops and we're going to make it all ourselves.  Unfortunately we managed to allow another sourdough starter to die through neglect (yes it really does need to be fed every day, and until we manage to do this Melissa's not allowed to get a cat).  For some reason we didn't take a picture of the wholemeal loaf that could double as a doorstop as Melissa got impatient and forgot to let it rise once the loaf had been shaped.  But we've learned from experience now and the last loaf was a big improvement.  What's slightly annoying about our new pact is that it takes a quite a long time to make fresh bread the regular way.  So when we've had guests down they've mostly been treated to soda bread for breakfast as you can make a delicious loaf in 45 minutes from start to finish.

Having made quite a few regular soda breads we fancied a change, and for Melissa's parents we tried out the River Cottage Everyday 6 seeded soda bread (although we didn't have any linseeds so it was actually only 5 seeded soda bread):

The unusual addition of fennel seeds gives the bread a lovely flavour that goes really well with a slice of strong cheddar for a picnic lunch.

Today Melissa's sister and her boyfriend were treated to some zesty citrus shortbread alongside some homemade lemon ice cream.  I was especially happy as the recipe made plenty of biscuits for me to enjoy with a cup of tea when I was hungover after Karrie and Jon's visit on Friday night:

It's really lovely having people down to visit and the bonus for me is that there's always plenty of leftover treats for us to enjoy after our guests have gone!

Wholemeal honey cake with cinnamon icecreammm...

Melissa and I had our lovely friends (and soon to be neighbours) Laura and Slim down to stay last weekend.  And of course I need the very slightest excuse to get my pinny on and bake up a storm, so I pulled down all my favourite recipe books to search for a new recipe while Melissa rolled her eyes to heaven with a smile usually reserved for toddlers enjoying playtime.

After about two hours poring over photos of dozens of puddings and pies I plumped for a combination of two recipes - a wholemeal honey cake from River Cottage Every Day and cinnamon icecream from Rachel Allen's Entertaining At Home to go on top. 

The cinnamon icecream is a handy no-churn recipe that doesn't need a machine and is a cinch to whip up from just 4 ingredients - eggs, double cream, sugar and cinnamon.  I should say it's easy provided you have an electric whisk, as the cream, egg whites and yolks and sugar all need to be whipped separately to soft peaks - I definitely wouldn't fancy doing that by hand!  Then all you do is fold the mixtures together and freeze overnight until set.  Yum.

The wholemeal honey cake is a fairly standard sponge using a mixture of wholemeal flour and ground almonds which gives it a unique depth of flavour and texture.  It calls for a 23cm tin, but for some reason we have seven 21cm tins but none the required size.  I decided to try my luck anyway, thinking that 2cm can't make that much of a difference.  Turns out that it does.  When I checked to see whether the cake was done at the recommended time it wasn't even nearly done, the batter was clearly wobbling like santa's belly in the tin. It needed a good 20 minutes longer than the recipe said and unfortunately opening the oven door early made it sink a bit in the centre.  It's at these times you really wish your dining table wasn't right in the middle of the kitchen!  Still, it's how it tastes that really counts, and after I'd drizzled more than a healthy amount of honey over the top of the hot cake it was ready to serve up with the homemade icecream:

Although the two recipes weren't written to go together (and each stands up equally well on its own), the combination of the warm syrupy wholemeal sponge with the cool creamy spiced icecream was a good one.  The cake also has a lovely buttery sugary crust at the edge which is a really nice contrast to the soft and comforting sponge.

Laura and Slim's verdict:

And that was after seconds!