Cookie Mad: Nutella Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are absolute heaven, they are amazing fresh out of the oven, obviously after 10 minutes cooling time. They are the perfect combination of chewy, melty and soft. They are surprisingly easy to make, there is a little bit of a rest time but they are well worth the wait in my opinion. 

This is a pretty impressive cookie recipe, the results 9 times out of 10 are perfect and they are amazing served warm, melted Nutella in a crisp and chewy peanut shell. Gorgeous. I first tried this recipe to try and impress my partner as he is a real fan of both Nutella and peanut butter, scrumptious spreadable goodness which is just too moreish.

There is a bit of a process which goes on with this recipe, and you have to be quite patient. The recipe can create up to 22 cookies, which you have to mould by hand and you will need to ensure you have wrapped the cookies up perfectly otherwise they can turn out a little bit messy. So to ensure the best results, make sure you have time in order to make these cookies.

Nutella Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup Nutella 1 3/4 cups Plain Flour
1 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• Scoop out 22 1-teaspoon sized scoops of Nutella onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze until solid, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 195oc. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully combined. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla. On low speed gradually add the flour mixture.
• Take a ping pong ball sized amount of dough into your hands and roll into ball. Using your other palm, press the dough flat into your hand. Take the frozen Nutella, place it in the middle of the dough and wrap it around the  Nutella and roll back into a ball. Place on the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Bake for about 12 minutes, or until slightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are amazing warm, so get in there as soon as they come out of the oven, they are so hard to resist. Why not try a couple in a bowl with a scoop of ice cream, trust me its amazing!

Cookie Mad: Marshmallow Core Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are absolute heaven, they are amazing fresh out of the oven, obviously after 10 minutes cooling time. They are the perfect combination of chewy, melty and soft. They are surprisingly easy to make, there is a little bit of a rest time but they are well worth the wait in my opinion. 

This is a pretty impressive cookie recipe, the results 9 times out of 10 are perfect and they are amazing served warm, melted marshmallow in a crisp and chewy peanut shell. Gorgeous. I first tried this recipe on the back of the Nutella Stuffed Peanut Butter Cookies. I wondered if it would work as well as the Nutella Does. The cookies have a slightly flatter appearance but they are incredibly chewy as well as being so soft. Divine!

There is a bit of a process which goes on with this recipe, and you have to be quite patient. The recipe can create up to 22 cookies, which you have to mould by hand and you will need to ensure you have wrapped the cookies up perfectly otherwise they can turn out a little bit messy. So to ensure the best results, make sure you have time in order to make these cookies.

Marshmallow Core Peanut Butter Cookies

Tip: Cut a 'Flump' (Marshmallow Tube) into 7 pieces to achieve the size desired for these cookies.

22 Medium Sized Marshmallows or 4 Flumps 1 3/4 cups Plain Flour
1 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• Preheat the oven to 195oc. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cut your flumps into 7 pieces and pop on the baking trays and put in the freezer.
• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the peanut butter until fully combined. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla. On low speed gradually add the flour mixture.
• Take a ping pong ball sized amount of dough into your hands and roll into ball. Using your other palm, press the dough flat into your hand. Take the frozen Marshmallow, place it in the middle of the dough and wrap it around the  Marshmallow and roll back into a ball. Place on the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Bake for about 12 minutes, or until slightly browned. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are amazing warm, so get in there as soon as they come out of the oven, they are so hard to resist. Why not try a couple in a bowl with a scoop of ice cream, trust me its amazing!

Anti-Gravity Malteser Cake

I made this cake for my brothers birthday, in order to out do my efforts last year. I make the birthday cakes in this family, but each family member has a different theme, for example when I bake something for my partner, I will ensure it contains peanut butter, as he absolutely loves it, so I cant go wrong. My dad will have a chocolate cake, my step-mum a very pretty cake, my mum will have something fruity, and so on. I tend to make my brothers cake completely absurd, spectacular and every year I attempt to top my previous efforts. I saw an image on Pintrest of an antigravity cake which was made with M&MS. I think the idea of an anti-gravity cake is both clever and highly impressive. I decided to make mine with maltesers, as they are one of my brothers favourites. In terms of flavour of the cake, I had no second thoughts on keeping my cake a chocolatey one. I made my fool proof chocolate sponge with chocolate hazelnut icing, a great cheat of mine, but it is completely delicious, and when you need to ice both the inside and the outside of a cake you need a fair amount of icing.

In terms of tools you will need to pull off a cake like this, you will require a base for the cake, cocktail sticks, and a skewer. I will advise you to soak them in order until you need them so that they don't shave off any splinters in your cake!

Anti-Gravity Malteser Cake

250g self-raising flour

250g granulated sugar

250g softened butter

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

200g Nutella/ Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

400g Icing Sugar

100g Butter

Splash of milk

1 small bag of Maltesers

5 bags of Grab Bag Maltesers

3 Packs of Cadburys Chocolate Fingers

• Preheat the oven to 195oc and pace baking paper in two 9 inch round tins.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together until light and fluffy.
• In a separate jug, whisk the eggs together and set to one side.
• Weigh out the flour, baking powder and cocoa and gradually add to the cream and sugar mixture. This will be a little tough and thick however once the flour has been added, proceed to add the egg mixture. Mix until thick.
• The mixture will need to be correctly halved and placed in the tins. To do this use 2 bowls to divide the mixture out evening, or estimate if you aren't too fussed.
• Bake the sponge for 15 minutes, until golden brown and springy.
• While the sponges are baking, you can use this time to make your icing. In a food processor, place the icing sugar with the butter. If the mixture is a little stiff, add a splash of milk to lighten it up.
• Once the ingredients have been combined well, add the nutella and whizz the mixture some more.
• Pop in the fridge until the sponges are cold.
• Once the cakes are ready to ice, take some of the icing to sandwich both sponges  together, then proceed to ice the sides and the top of the sponges.
• To decorate, stick the chocolate fingers around the sides of the cake, but leave space at the front for the flood of maltesers.
• Place the maltesers neatly on top of the cake and the gap left by the fingers, for effectiveness, if you use a large cake base you can have some of the maltesers spilling onto the base.
• If the maltesers are having trouble sticking to the icing then use the cocktail sticks, stick the cocktail stick into the malteser at one end and the other end into the cake.
• Using the skewers, pop the small malteser bag on top, empty obviously and fix with a small piece of sticky tape.
• Pop the skewer into the cake and using the left over icing, create a tower of maltesers up to the bag, to look as if they are falling out. To finish I can the cake a shimmering of cocoa and icing sugar, this gives the cake a real glimmering.
  
  
  

  
  

If you have any tips of questions please comment below.

Enjoy!

Perfect Party Puff Pastry Truffle Cheesecake

This recipe is completely over the top, but absolutely perfect if you are going to event or want to blow everyone else's cake supply out of the water. This cheesecake will definitely get everyone else's attention not just visually but it tastes absolutely incredible, trust me.

I first made this cake to enter into a 'bake off competition' at work. The teaching staff brought in cakes to be judged by the principle all in aid of a fantastic charity, Great Ormond Street. It was a fantastic day and a lot of fun, I was a little gutted to place second though. Only joking. It was a lot of fun to make as well as eat, everyone enjoyed it and it was one of the only ones to be completely eaten by the staff on out PD day.

I have always enjoyed making cheesecakes, they are my favourite desserts and I love creating the layers and making them very visually delicious as well as taste. So I decided to go all out, I had a little think before hand about what I could do with my cheesecake to make it a little different to those I usually make. The brief was chocolate, so I knew that wouldn't be a problem incorporating, so I decided to switch up the case of my cheesecake a little, I decided I would have a puff pastry base rather than the classic biscuit. I used packet puff pastry in order to save time. I rolled out the pastry, lined with sweet cherries, rolled into tubes and baked. When it came to assembling the cheesecake I cut the pastry tubes into 4cm chunks and stood them up in the tin and sandwiched them with whipped cream, which was mixed with peanut butter. I chose to infuse my cream with peanut butter as I am a massive peanut butter and jam fan, and the sweetness of the cherries was carried well with the peanut in the cream. Fantastic combination.

The layers were all different colours, something I wanted when I planned my cheesecake, to give a more effective appearance, and were infused with various flavours. I had a milk chocolate cream cheese layer, white chocolate layer made pink by food colouring, a layer of crushed biscuits, white chocolate cream cheese, topped off with dark chocolate ganache and handmade truffles.

The decoration on top of the cheesecake is completely over the top but I wanted to go over the top, It was a competition! However don't feel obligated to do the same if you fancy trying this recipe!

So, are you going to make this cheesecake your party piece this Christmas?

Good Luck!

Perfect Party Puff Pastry Truffle Cheesecake

Cheesecake:

1 pack of puff pastry

1 tin of cherries

100g Milk Chocolate

200g White Chocolate

200g Dark Chocolate

500g Double Cream

300g Soft Cream Cheese

200g Mascarpone

2tbsp Peanut Butter (optional)

100g digestive biscuits
Pink food colouring

Truffles:

200g dark chocolate

100g double cream

50g White Chocolate

50g Milk Chocolate

Toppings (optional):

Pistachios

Edible Glitter

Freeze Dried Raspberries

Left over chocolate to drizzle/grate

• Start by lining your desired cake tin with cling film, grease the sides a little then line with the cling film. It would be best to use a spring form tin, that way you can remove the cheesecake with a little more ease.
• Star by flouring the work surface a little and roll out the puff pastry a little, the pastry sheet needs to be rolled out enough so that you can slice it horizontally into 4's. across the top the pastry should be between 6-7cm.
• Once you have cut your shapes, open the tin of cherries, drain the juice and slice the cherries in half. Following the height of the pastry, line the cherries from top to bottom.
• Pull the pastry over the cherries and wrap the cherries up tightly in tubes and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
• White the pastry is cooking, prepare the cream cheese. In a mixing bowl, stir the cream cheese, mascarpone and gradually add 300g of the double cream. Separate the mixture into three bowls equally. melt the milk chocolate and the white chocolate in separate bowls in either the microwave or on the hob, if you do it in the microwave then be sure to check the chocolate every 10 seconds to avoid burning it.
• Stir the chocolate once its melted and leave it to one side for 2-3 minutes, then add one of the bowls of chocolate to one of the bowls of cream cheese, and another bowl of chocolate to another bowl of cream cheese.
• In the last bowl of chocolate, add some of the pink food colouring, add as much as you want to achieve the colour desired. Put the  cream cheese in the fridge to chill.
• Chop the dark chocolate into chunks in a bowl. Pour 200g of the double cream into a saucepan and heat until it reaches the boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and continually stir until the chocolate is melted and put in the fridge.
• To prepare the biscuit layer, put the biscuits into a sandwich bag and bash until they are crumbs. If you would prefer you can use a food processor.
• In another bowl using a hand mixer or an ordinary whisk whip the cream until thick and fluffy. If you would like the cream to include the peanut element, mix the 2 tbsp. into the cream until fully dispersed.
• Once the pastry is cool, cut the tubes into 3cm pieces. In the tin place them standing up, create your base squeezing as many of the tubes in the tin as possible. Use the peanut cream to sandwich them all together.
• Take the cream cheeses out of the fridge and in your preferred order and layer them into the tin.
• Once you've done this, add the biscuit layer, then proceed to layer the dark chocolate sauce on top and refrigerate until firm.
• If you decide to make truffles for the topping: Chop the dark chocolate into chunks in a bowl. Pour the double cream into a saucepan and heat until it reaches the boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and continually stir until the chocolate is melted and put in the fridge until stiffened. Once it is ready, using an ice cream scoop or a teaspoon, create small balls with the  mixture and pop them onto a baking tray. When you have repeated with all of the mixture, pop back in the fridge to keep firm.
• In a small bowl melt the chocolate covering of choice in either the microwave or on the hob. Get you toppings prepared: sprinkles, chocolate shavings, edible glitter etc.
• Once the chocolate is melted, using a teaspoon, lower the truffle into the chocolate and circulate until covered and quickly lift out of the mixture onto a plate or back onto the baking tray and add your desired topping. Pop the truffles back in the fridge when you have finished to allow them to harden.
• Decorate with the cheesecake is ready to be taken from the tin and is set.

Any questions, please get in touch!

Oreo Cupcakes

Cupcakes are one of my favourite things to bake, perhaps because I am so used to baking them, that now I feel like I have really perfected my technique to a perfect sponge and some great icing flavours. I am always trying different cupcake combos, and for my friend Emily's birthday I decided to give some Oreo Cupcakes a go!! And honestly they were absolutely delectable and they are worth giving a go if you love Oreos, not only are they simple but they look and taste amazing, I was in heaven licking the icing down once I was finished piping the cupcakes!

Oreo cupcakes with Oreo Icing

Makes 18

125g self raising flour

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

170g softened butter

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

400g Oreos 

100g marshmallows

500g icing sugar

50ml milk

• Preheat the oven to 195oc and prepare your muffin trays with cupcake cases, I use a 12 and a 6 as this recipe makes 18.
• In a large mixing bowl cream 125g of the butter and the sugar together. 
• Set to one side and in another bowl whisk the 2 eggs.
• Sift the flour into the mixing bowl gradually, this will produce a very stiff batter. Add the baking soda and then start to add the whisked eggs gradually and a soft and fluffy batter will start to form. 
• Add the vanilla essence, stir again add set to one side. 
• In a small bowl measure out your marshmallows and microwave for about 30 seconds. This should produce a gooey mixture of melted marshmallows. Add to the sponge mixture and give one last stir. This create the most gorgeous light and gooey sponge!!
• In the cupcake cases, pop an Oreo at the bottom of each one to give your cupcakes a biscuit base.
• Spoon 1 tbsp. of cake mixture into each cupcake case and once the mixture has been delved out pop into the oven for 15 minutes until golden.
• In a food processor, blitz the remaining Oreos for 30-40 seconds until powdery. Add the remaining 45g butter and the icing sugar and mix in the processor. This will create a very stiff mixture. Using the milk, very gradually add a few drops at a time, checking the icing is not becoming too wet but is also not too stiff. Once the icing is ready remove from the processor into a bowl and keep in the fridge until ready to pipe.
• Once the cakes are cool using a rose head and a piping bag, pipe the icing into the cupcakes and to decorate I sliced a couple of Oreos in half and popped on the top of the cake in a butterfly style, however you can decorate how you please!

Enjoy!!

Chocolate and Pear Tarts

These tarts have the wow factor both visually and in terms of taste, they are utterly delicious. I first made these when I went all out on a Friday Night, cooking my partner a 3 course dinner at home and these were my showcase dessert. I was a little apprehensive of whether or not they would work and how they would turn out. I always make my own pastry but you can buy very nice tart cases and rather inexpensively from supermarkets so if you want to save around half of the time in takes to make these tarts then that's what I advise you do. I like to go all out with decoration when I bake as you may have already guessed but of course you can decorate these tarts as you wish. I sprinkle mine with freese dried raspberrries as they stand out beautifully against the dark chocolate filling and some sliced pears . To finish I topped off with a couple of Chocolate Matchsticks as I happened to have some left over in the cupboard, but as I say its up to you.

Chocolate & Pear Tarts

Makes 4 Tarts

Pastry:

225g Plain Flour

175g Butter

45g Icing Sugar

1 large egg, beaten

Filling:

300g dark chocolate

200g Double cream

1 small tin of pears in juice

Freeze Dried Raspberries

White Chocolate Shavings

• To begin with, make the pastry. Preheat the oven to 190 oc and prepare your tart cases: lightly grease them and set them to one side.
• Measure the flour and butter into a food processor and blend until resembles bread crumbs. Add the icing sugar and egg until a combined ball.
• Roll out on a floured surface to a 2mm thickness.
• Cut into 4 equal rectangles and lower over the tart tins, or over just the one if you are making one big one.
• Press the pasty into the tin and cut off the pastry which hangs over the side. Once you have done this, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes until golden.
• In a large saucepan heat the cream over a medium heat until it starts to boil.
• While you wait break the chocolate into squares in a mixing bowl. Once the cream has been brought to the boil pour it in with the chocolate, immediately start to stir, you are looking for the cream to melt all of the chocolate. Once you have done this set the filling to once side.
• When your tarts are ready to be taken out of the oven, take out of the tart cases and pop them onto a cooling rack to cool down completely.
• To prepare the pears, drain the juice from the pan and finely slice the pears. They usually come in halves. I would recommend slicing 8 of the pear halves in total.
• Once the pastry is cool, layer the slice pears into the cases coming no further than halfway.
• Poor the chocolate on top then cool in the fridge until the chocolate is completely set, this will take about 2 hours in total.

• Once the tarts have set you can decorate them, I slice more of the pears and fan several out on top, grate some white chocolate, scatter freeze dried raspberries and pop a truffle on top, however on this occasion I used Matchmakers to finish!

Let me know what you came up with if you had a go at this recipe! Good luck!

Cheese & Marmite Scones

I absolutely love Scones! I will be posting several scone related recipes over the next couple of days. There is nothing more suitable to enjoy on a Sunday afternoon than a warm scone, sweet or savoury and a sweet cup of tea. Whether you smother your scone in cream cheese, butter or clotted cream and jam, there is a truly British element to this past time and it is one tastes so good.

I always enjoy baking Scones, there is a certain victorious feeling when you take them out of the oven and they have grown from pale doughy balls to soft, golden brown and shinny topped scones, and I know that you could say that about many things but Baking Scones is very nostalgic for me. 

Over time I have developed several recipes which have graduated away from the norm of fruit Scones and there are several which have stuck with me that I tend to make on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I love fruit Scones, there is nothing better than plump juicy sultanas cushioned by the sweet dough of a Scone but sometimes you've got to mix things up right?!

Makes 12

Cheese & Marmite Scones

450g Self-Raising Flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

75g Butter

50g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

220ml Milk

2 tbsp. Marmite

100g Cheddar Cheese

• Line 2 baking brays with parchment and preheat the oven to 220oc
• Using a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder and butter into a crumble like mixture, use your fingertips to do this. Once you've don't this add the sugar.
• Beat the eggs together in a jug, add milk to mixture, making it up to 300ml. Gradually add the wet mixture to the crumb mixture and combine until a dough has formed, try and keep a little bit of the wet mixture in order to brush the Scones before they go in the oven to give a glossy and shiny finish.
• You will find that the dough is quite sticky, this is what you want as it will ensure the mixture rises well once in the oven.

• At this point you can add the cheese and the marmite, fold into the dough until spread evenly.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and flatten it out first with your hands and then proceed to use a rolling pin; roll out to a 1-2cm thickness. Using a cookie cutter or a cup, push down into the dough, twist slightly and lift the scone straight out onto the tray. Place 6 on each tray, with a generous amount of room between each one.
• Brush the tops of the Scones with the remaining egg and milk mixture and bake for 12-15 minutes until the Scones are well risen and golden.
• 
  

Any questions or queries please get in touch

BBx