Chocolate Peanut Crinkles

Super simple but impressive cookie recipe today. These are not traditional cookies, they dont have the same texture, they are actually nearer brownies, although not gooey in the same way. The impressive thing about these is that they are rolled in icing sugar so that when they are baked they crackle and reveal the chocolate cookie beneath. The recipe makes loads, I got 45 from the cookie dough, thankfully they were baked as a favour for an event so they didnt go to waste. The recipe comes from the new book by the White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, The Perfect Finish. The book has some wonderful sounding recipes from a Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart to Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nutella, I cant wait to try some more.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I have noticed a lot of internet searches looking for my oatmeal raisin cookie from episode two of The Great British Bake Off so I thought I would do a post with the recipe I used on the show. If you want to know the backstory of the recipe you can read this. The recipe is simple and easy to make, the only thing that is a little different is the use of milk powder and very finely chopped white chocolate to add a milky/creaminess to the cookie. I have changed it slightly from the published recipe, if you want a thicker slighty cakier version use the one in the this months BBC Good Food Magazine.

Great British Bake Off – Episode 2

I meant to write a post last week about my experiences of the show and of the cotswolds but never quite got around to it so this week I was prepared. I loved filming this weeks episode, the weather was so much better than the previous week. You couldn’t tell on the show but it rained almost the whole weekend and it was bitterly cold as well. Scotland was warm and sunny and when we were not filming we were out enjoying the sun. I also felt very comfortable in the kitchen compared to the week before, I was relaxed and excited to be there doing what I love.

For the first challenge we had to make biscuits and yes my definiton of biscuits includes cookies! I went with my oatmeal raisin cookies which were inspired by and adapted from a recipe from a New York bakery called Momofuku Milk Bar (original recipe here). The really interesting thing about the recipe is that they used milk powder to make crumbs to add a creaminess which I loved. So I played around and came up with a recipe using the same idea. For the show I adapted it further and changed the way I make them to make simpler and more straight forward. The recipe I used on the show isnt on the BBC website but my original adaption is here.

The Second Challenge was scones and, well… yeah I didnt do great on the challenge. I grew up on my mum’s wonderful scones and holidays in devon with real cream teas, but the ones my mum taught me to make are slightly more rustic so maybe ill just brush over this challenge…

The third and final challenge was the big one, macarons, meringues and choux buns. I make macarons a lot but not so much choux pastry and meringue but i wasn’t uncomfortable with them either. My macarons were filled with raspberry jam and a rose flavoured French buttercream. If you want to look at the recipes I use most often take a look at this post here.