Alison Roman's Salted Butter & Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

Okay I am completely powerless when it comes to chocolate, especially chocolate chips, I add them to a LOT of my baked treats, I can't resist a recipe that calls for copious amounts of chunky chocolate chips and one that's really straightforward to make...it's a failing I know!

So needless to say my eye was caught at the sight of these beautiful shortbread cookies on Instagram. I was doing my usual daily hourly scan of my timeline when I noticed this hash tag #diningincookbook, appetising enough as I love dining in but what caught my eye was what usually followed was a plateful of mouthwatering cookies. What's all this? Why is everyone raving about these cookies. Not one to be left behind on a cookie trail of discovery, I decided to find out for myself what Alison Roman's cookies were really like to make and better still what they tasted like! I know I'm a sucker for delicious tasting sweet treats so this is going to be no hardship :)

Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

Smooth white chocolate the perfect companion for tart dried cranberries, to further my pleasure it's all wrapped up in a light crisp cookie!

4 Ingredient Red Velvet Cookies

Over the school mid term the children and I spent some time in the kitchen, we baked a couple of cakes and by total accident we discovered this recipe for cookies!

Smarties Cookies

It is fair to say, the weather in Ireland recently has been somewhat unpredictable, the days are more like micro seasons, sunny with blue skies one minute and hail showers the next!! The cherry blossoms have at last dressed themselves in their beautiful gowns albeit a month late, the trees are in full bloom and the swallows are busy building their nests. It has been a tentative start to the summer but I think we are finally getting there. Baking for me is very cathartic and baking smarties cookies is the most beneficial of all, these bright jewel cookies are the perfect antidote for our strange weather and will be cheery no matter what it's doing outside!! 

This of course all seems so trivial by comparison to the great wonders of the universe, which have been put very much in perspective in the past couple of days with the safe return of Commander Hadfield to earth. We have been enjoying his tweets and videos, especially Space Oddity, although my children were more interested in his "Tears don't fall in space" video, this new found wisdom has been passed on with great excitement to anyone that will listen, you have been warned!

Makes 20-25 cookies

Ingredients
100g Butter softened
150g Light brown sugar
1 Egg + 1 egg yolk
250g Plain flour
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
150g Smarties (about 4 tubes)

Method

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350º F/Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking sheet with baking paper. Combine the flour and the bicarbonate of soda, set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until pale with a hand mixer.

Add the egg and egg yoke with a tablespoon of flour (to prevent the egg from splitting) mix until combined. Add the remainder of the flour until you have a stiff dough. 

Roll the cookie dough into walnut sized balls or scoop with an ice cream scoop, place about 5cm apart on the baking sheets to allow for spreading, flatten with wet hands.

Place the smarties onto the cookies

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden around the edges. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Why not try......

Fold in 150g of dark chocolate chip and the smarties to the cookie dough.

Place walnut sized balls onto the prepared baking sheet and flatten as before.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

 Serve with a glass of ice cold milk and devour! 

White Chocolate, Oat and Raisin Cookies

I'm trying to beat the system here with these cookies, can I munch away on these and not feel guilty!! Well yes I believe I can, I'm not one to deny myself so I will eat a cookie no mater what. Perhaps if that cookie has real goodness in it and still tastes delicious then I'm onto a winner. I regard the goodness as the porridge oats and the sunflower seeds all very beneficial for lowering Cholesterol , fibre and long lasting energy but the guilty part is the white chocolate! Now if you really need to be very, very good then I suppose you could half the amount of chocolate or perhaps omit it all together...there, these cookies are squeaky clean on the healthy front, but down right guilty on the tasty front!! 

I made these little beauties for January Calendar Cakes which is hosted by Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes, well worth checking out their brilliant blogs.

Makes 22-24

Ingredients
50g Plain flour
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp Salt

75g Butter
85g Soft brown sugar
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 Egg, beaten

150g White chocolate chips
75g Raisins
50g Sunflower seeds
80g Porridge oats


Method
Preheat  the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper, set aside. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a small bowl. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and the beaten egg along with a tablespoon of the sifted flour (this prevents the egg from curdling, especially if like me you keep your eggs in the fridge) 

Fold in all of the remaining ingredients until completely combined and you have a stiff dough. 

Shape into walnut-sized balls and flatten slightly by pressing in the centre with wet fingers. Allow about 5cm between each cookie as they will spread while baking. 

Place in the oven pre-heated  for 10 to 12 minutes until golden around the edges. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

The cookies will crisp up as they cool and are suitable for freezing.

Recipe adapted from Annabel Karmel's Oat and Raisin Cookies recipe.

Hallowe'en Treats Recipes

Hallowe'en Treats

Hallowe'en Pumpkin Cake

Well it's my favourite time of year again, the countryside is awash with beautiful colours, the air is clean and crisp and All Hallows' Eve is almost upon us. I'd like to think of Hallowe'en as a a great time for children, why not celebrate it with a party, and this fun pumpkin cake as the centre piece. I bought the baking pan in Aldi, at the start of October, there was the choice of this or a skeleton's head, I decided on this one, although I think that next year, a bloody, decapitated skull cake will be on the top of the party food list!!

Hallowe'en Apple Pops

These easy party apple pops are an alternative to the traditional toffee apples. I love to dot these around the party table, the surprise on the children's faces when they realise that it's apple (or pear if you prefer) is priceless. It's hasn't stopped anyone yet eating the lot and begging for more!

Spooky Ice Cream in Chocolate Bowls

Boooo! These are frighteningly tasty (sorry!), what's not to like, creamy ice cream and chocolate! Well they certainly go down a treat in this house, with children and adults. I usually make them in advance which makes them the perfect party food. Older children could easily make these, perhaps they might need some help melting the chocolate.

Hallowe'en Severed Finger Cookies 

These are delicious, light and crisp. I have been making these for years now and they always mean the start of Hallowe'en in this house. They are a perfect activity of children, as the dough won't get tough even as it's shaped and reshaped. My son also loves to make skulls from the dough, marking out the eyes and mouth with small chocolate chips. Tasty and scary!!!

Hallowe'en Severed Finger Cookies

 

These are delicious, light and crisp. I have been making these for years now and they always mean the start of Hallowe'en in this house. They are a perfect activity of children, as the dough won't get tough even as it's shaped and reshaped. My son also loves to make skulls from the dough, marking out the eyes and mouth with small chocolate chips. Tasty and scary!!!

Cheat's Posh Dessert!!

We were in our local SuperValu cafe this week having a spot of lunch, when this beautiful dessert caught my eye. It looked and tasted really delicious (they were divine), but what was best of all is how simple it is to put together. This will be a show stopper the next time I'm cooking for friends. If you are really short on time, this will be just as dramitic with good quality shop bought cookies and ready whipped cream, and I suggest that you use the chocolate ice cream sauce that sets when it's poured over ice cream, it will drizzle easier and stay put!!

Serves 4

Ingredients

12 Chunky chocolate chip cookies

250ml Whipping cream

2tsp Caster sugar

Chocolate ice cream sauce

Icing sugar to dust

Method

Whip the cream and sugar until it is at the soft peak stage. Insert a medium sized star nozzle into your piping bag and fill the piping bag with the cream.

Pipe a small rosette in the centre of your presentation plate, this will stop the whole creation sliding off the plate!!

Set a cookie on top of the rosette and press down firmly, pipe a swirl of cream onto the cookie.



Continue to layer until you have a tower of three cookies.

Drizzle with the chocolate sauce and then dust with the icing sugar. This will keep in the fridge for 1-2 hours but the cookies will become very soft if left too long.



 

Sugar Cookies

This is the prefect recipe for beautiful cookies, no matter how detailed your cutters are, all the fine details are retained during the baking process. I have used other cookie recipes in the past and to my utter fustraition, the cookies either bubble up, become misshapen or spread during the cooking process, so all my cookies look slightly strange and wonky!!
This recipe will not cause such fustration and your details will remain in place, so you can ice in any of the details, giving a very professional finish to your cookies.

Recipe complements of Cake Decorating Issue 1 (March 2012)

Makes 18 -20 Cookies (depending on the size of cutter)

Ingredients
125g Unsalted butter
125g Caster sugar
1 Medium egg
1tsp Vanilla extract
250g Plain flour

Method
In a bowl or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together. Sift half of the flour into the bowl and mix it in, then sift in the other half and mix again.

Knead the dough until smooth, then wrap in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat your even to Gas mark 4/180C/350F. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to around 4mm thick.

Use your cutters ( I used a drinking glass) to cut it out.

Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until light golden brown. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

I decorated these cookies with a daisy embosser and then with a small amount of lemon sugarpaste cut out small discs for the centre. Royal icing "stuck" everything together.

For a simpler and quicker design, emboss a round of sugarpaste with the daisy and fix the lemon discs with royal icing.

Have fun with shapes and colour.

Weetabix Chocolate Chip Cookies

Seriously a really easy recipe, there are more photographs than words in this post! This is my last Weetabix post for now, these are really tasty, well worth a try. Each cookie has a slight crunch which is lovely, they are not chewy like my  Traditional American Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe but I think they're a real keeper. I have two other Weetabix recipes you might like to try Weetabix Brownies and Weetabix Easter Nests all quick and easy (I don't work for Weetabix. I promise). I use whatever brown sugar is in the press, however, if you use light brown sugar you will get a paler and softer cookie, where as the dark brown sugar gives a crunchier cookie.

Makes about 32 cookies

Ingredients
4 Weetabix, crushed
250g Plain flour
½ tsp  Bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp Salt
175g Soft butter or margarine
125g Brown sugar
50g Granulated sugar
1½ tsp  Vanilla extract
1 Egg
250g Chocolate chips

Method
Cream together butter and sugars.

Beat in vanilla and egg. Mix together crushed Weetabix, flour, soda and salt. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls or roll small balls, place onto an greased baking sheet and bake at 180 C for 12 minutes (slightly longer for a more crisp cookie).

Cool on baking sheet for about 2 minutes, then transfer to cool completely. Store in airtight container. Cookies freeze well.

The same recipe using light brown sugar photographed above.