Peanut butter and jam cookies

 Makes 16 enormous cookies

• 185 g Plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 g softened butter 
• 200 g smooth peanut butter
• 185 g brown sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 egg
• 100 g jam

1) pre-heat the oven to 180*C

2) beat butter, peanut butter and sugar together till fluffy

3) add the egg, milk and vanilla and mix in

4) add the flour and baking powder and mix in

5) use an ice cream/mashed potato scoop to put scoops of the mixture onto lined baking trays. Make sure to leave plenty of space around each one as they’ll spread slightly when cooking

6) dip a teaspoon measuring spoon into cold water and use the back of it to make a little divot in the middle of each cookie -wetting the spoon again after each one. The water on the spoon stops it from sticking 

7) add a teaspoon of jam to the dip you’ve created. 

8) bake for 10-12 mins or till light golden brown 

9) cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully

Spiced Cranberry and Orange Muffins

 Spiced Cranberry and Orange Muffins

Makes 20-24 muffins! 

Well it’s September so that means Autumn is upon us. A fact I am far too excited about! My favourite season by far, leaves turning the most amazing colours, bright crisp mornings, Bonfire Night and Halloween, toffee apples, or just apples and pears in season, cosy comfort food and snuggly nights in watching the wind and rain from indoors. Okay okay...I’ll stop! 

One of my favourite autumnal flavour combos for sweet baking is orange and cranberry with sweet warming spices so I decided to knock up some muffins with those flavours.  They do not disappoint if I do say so myself. 

This recipe uses orange zest and juice but I didn’t have an orange so I substituted it for the zest and juice of two lovely sweet satsumas/easy-peelers just be careful when grating the zest not to rip the whole skin off. 

Ingredients:

100g dried cranberries 

Zest and juice of a large orange/2 satsumas etc.

2 eggs

125ml oil (not extra virgin olive oil as it’s too strong flavoured)

250ml milk

125g caster sugar and 125g soft brown sugar (or just 250g caster sugar, the brown sugar just adds a caramel note)

400g self raising flour

Pinch salt

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon 

0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

In a little bowl, soak the cranberries in the orange zest and juice while you do the rest of the recipe. It just helps them to plump up a little and they absorb a little of the citrus flavour and become like little fruity bombs in the muffins. 

Preheat the oven to 180*C fan

Break the two eggs into a large bowl/bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high speed for one minute till they are full of bubbles and fluffy.

Add the oil and milk and whisk till combined. 

Then add the sugar and whisk again till the mixture is smooth.

Add the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix in till just mixed.

Add the cranberries, zest and orange juice. Whisk in briefly till it’s just mixed.

Scoop into paper cases in a muffin tin.

Bake for 15-20 mins till a skewer/cocktail stick comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn out onto a wire rack to fully cool.

TIP: For a crispy top you could add a teaspoon of Demerara sugar to the top of each muffin right before they go in the oven. Or you can ice them with a drizzle icing which is just a mixture of icing sugar and orange juice and zest. 

Spicy Egg Parcel (breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/midnight munchies!) (V)

 Spicy Crispy Egg Parcel (breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/midnight munchies!) 

Serves 1

Vegetarian 

I promise these look trickier than they are to make. Also, nice to have a veggie cooked breakfast to draw on especially if you’ve got lovely vegetarians in your life. 

Looking in the fridge today trying to decide what on earth I wanted for breakfast/lunch and just started grabbing stuff and decided to just play and see what I could come up with. Pretty chuffed with the eventual product. I’d say it was a successful experiment! 

INGREDIENTS:

1tsp max cooking oil

1/4 diced red pepper 

1 chopped spring onion

3 medium eggs beaten

Pinch each of smoked paprika, dried chilli flakes, dried oregano, salt and pepper 

40g finely grated cheese (I used Red Leicester)

Wheat flour tortilla wrap 

Sriracha (to your taste)

Non stick pan

Greaseproof/baking paper

METHOD:

Fry off a little diced red pepper and chopped spring onions in very very little oil (if you use too much you risk being burned later) in a good non stick frying pan. Meanwhile beat 3 eggs and add a pinch each of smoked paprika, dried chilli flakes and dried oregano, salt and pepper, mix up and pour the eggs over the veggies and tilt the pan so the whole base of the pan is coated in egg, sprinkle over about half the grated cheese and once the eggs look about half cooked, lay on a tortilla wrap. Press down gently so the Runny egg and melty cheese sticks to the wrap. When you can jiggle the pan and the egg slides around you know it’s cooked enough to do this next bit. TURN OF THE HEAT! We don’t want anyone starting fires. Lay a piece of greaseproof paper over the top of the pan and put a plate face down on the paper. Can you see where this is going??? This is why it was important not to use too much oil! Keeping a hand firmly on the plate, invert the pan so the egg and wrap are now sitting on the plate and greaseproof. Put the plate to one side for a moment and put the pan back on the heat. Add a little sprinkle of cheese directly into the pan, and slide the wrap and egg back into the pan, wrap side down, this way you’ll get really crispy cheesiness on the outside of the parcel. Then sprinkle a little more cheese on the egg, fold up the sides of the wrap with a spatula/fish slice. And cook, turning every now and again until the tortilla wrap and the cheese that’s stuck to the outside of it, is crispy and golden. Serve with a drizzle of sriracha. 

You could add any veg you like to this but just make sure it’s not too veg-heavy or the egg won’t hold together and go crispy and you’ll end up with a soggy wrap. A bit of bacon or cooked chicken would be nice in this too but I was working with what we had and sometimes I just fancy meat free. 

I can imagine this being really nice late night after you’ve been out for a few drinks but you MUST remember the two key safety steps:

!! Use hardly any oil or you’ll get scalded!!

!! Turn off the heat before placing the greaseproof on top of the pan or you’ll start a fire!!