Peanut Butter Oreo Crumble Cake

Biscuits, biscuits everywhere is pretty much the theme tune to the last few days! There has been bashing, blitzing, slicing and dicing testing out break-ability and of course a little tasting here and there too! If you are wondering why then it was a because I was a sent a few packets of some Special Edition Oreo's to play with. I do like a challenge and had good fun experimenting with them! Something I don't often get the chance to do as we flat-share and they were thankfully away for a few days whilst I destroyed the kitchen with crumbs and using nearly every bowl we own in the process!

**I have received product from Oreo for this post. It is an entry to the Foodies100 Wonderfilled recipe challenge sponsored by Oreo, which marks the launch of two exciting new flavours: Peanut Butter and Golden. The delicious new flavours are available in all major supermarkets at an RRP of £1.08. To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/oreo**

After a lot of scribbling and buying random kids sweets that never got used (I am sure won't hang around long once I declare to my boyfriend they can be eaten, shh!) I ended combining parts of other recipes I had been making for years, along with pure experimental madness! It paid off as this cake went down very well at work! Its my final week in my current job, and as a result I was requested to make lots of cake - they had chai tea fruit cake yesterday and today received this Oreo cake - the finale on Friday my renowned Sticky Toffee and Orange pudding! Next week is salad week!!

This cake has a soft, custard laced base sponge, topped with a banana and peanut puree, then crumbled up peanut butter Oreo's and oats, then a shiny chocolate glaze, oh and the requisite sprinkles of choice! I am tempted next time to add more banana to make a thicker layer but stick to two if you are are less persuaded by the idea! I roast my own peanuts (shelled from monkey nuts) as they taste better for baking and have no nasties, then grind them fresh to order - un-ground they will keep a fair few months in a cool air tight container. 

You will need a 8 " square pan, lined with parchment paper

Ingredients:

120g soft butter

130g golden caster sugar

2 medium eggs

50g wholemeal self raising flour

25g porridge oats

10 Peanut Butter Oreo's

100g plain flour

5 tsp custard powder

2 bananas, mashed

1 heaped tsp cornflour

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

20g roasted peanuts

pinch of sea salt

Glaze ingredients:

50g golden caster sugar

3 tbsp milk

20g cocoa

Pre-heat oven to 180o.

Sift together the flours, salt and custard powder. In a separate bowl cream together the butter, sugar and egg, fold in the dry mix. Spread over the base of the prepared lined pan.

Mix the cornflour with 2 tbsp water, add to a small saucepan and heat - stirring constantly, once bubbling add the vanilla, then stir in the bananas and cook for two minutes. Remove to one side.

Crush the Oreo's to small chunks, about 5cm at the biggest - I found the end of my wooden rolling pin most effective! Combine with the oats and put to one side.

Add the slightly cooled banana mix to the prepared sponge layer and smooth over. Top with the Oreo crumbs and press lightly down, bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the sponge has cooked through.

In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the sugar and cocoa whisking until smooth and the sugar has melted, then whisk in the milk to form a smooth, thick sauce and simmer on a moderate heat for 2-3 minutes or until lovely and glossy.

Spoon the sauce over the cake, then decorate with sprinkles of choice and allow to cool fully in the tin.

There has been a few of us Foodies 100 bloggers taking part and some other Oreo related treats for you -

Peanut Butter and Golden Oreo Pudding from Fab Food 4 All

Peanut Butter Oreo Moon Rocks from Utterly Scrummy Food for Families

Oreo Nutella Ice Cream Cake from Kerry Cooks

White Chocolate Oreo Blondie Brownie from Ellie Bee Bakes

Slow Cooker White Chocolate Oreo Brownies from Baking Queen 74

Hidden Oreo Cupcakes from Sophie Loves Food

Peanut Butter Oreo Milkshake from Foodie Quine

Boozy Mincemeat and Marzipan Puff

So I have relented on the word 'Puff' following my recent strudel post. I’ve decided it doesn't have to mean that I have indeed baked dragons (or worse!) and as this was a folded filo parcel kinda pudding puff it shall remain, as it really wasn't strudel like. Well sort of but not really. Maybe I need to invent a new word, something catchy like Strupuff or Puffdel perhaps? Yeah, me neither.

Anyway I digress, this was one of those emergency puddings after realising I had half a packet of Filo pastry leftover from baking the strudel, which kinda needed eating 24 hours earlier but a quick sniff and visual check I deemed it was fine, fortunately I had wrapped it in damp paper towel which had kept it moist enough too, as filo is rather evil and dries out so fast! Whilst I had already made a cake for the impending family visit that evening, they are all good eaters and I thought they wouldn’t mind an extra pudding or two! I did joke it was my gigantic size cheffy man size trio of desserts!! I think with my boyfriend being away at the time I was missing cooking for two and it was lovely to have my dad and brother over to feed! 

The pudding was purely made up as I went along throwing nice things together quickly– the marzipan was leftover in the fridge from when I made the GBBO Swedish Princess tortlettes, the beloved Polish cocoa is always in the store-cupboard and the mincemeat was from a half opened jar at some point earlier this year... I do like a recipe that uses up odds n sods! Oh and the brandy was ‘borrowed’ from my dearest’s special imported bottle from South Africa…shh!

Serves 4:

Ingredients:

210g mincemeat
70g marzipan, roughly chopped into ½ cm chunks
10g cocoa powder
2 tbsp brandy
50g butter, melted
4 sheets filo pastry
2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 210o.

On a larger sheet of foil or parchment paper, lay out a sheet of filo at  a landscape angle and brush with melted butter, repeat with the remaining 3 sheets, to form a thick rectangle.

Combine the mincemeat, cocoa, marzipan and brandy until nicely mixed. Spoon the filling down the middle of the pastry, leaving an inch from the ends. 

Fold up the left and right sides inwards, brush the top half of the filo with butter, fold up the bottom half and gently tease over the top sheet to overlap. 

Brush liberally with butter and sprinkle over half the icing sugar. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden and crispy, dust with remaining icing sugar and serve sliced up with lashings of hot custard.

Overall the pudding was very highly received - the slightly boozy, fruity nutty and chocolately filling inside crisp buttery sweet pastry was heavenly and its a definite 'keeper' of a recipe!

It’s also really quite acceptable the next day too cold if you have a spare piece!

As this lush puff used up all sorts of odds n ends I am sending it over to the December No Waste Food Challenge at Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. Over the year I have really enjoyed taking part and hosting challenges and gained some amazing recipes along the way! Bring on 2015!!