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

Brandy & Marshmallow Brownies

We love brownies here, and this makes the 5th brownie recipe I have blogged, though there has been lots of experimental's in between! This one took inspiration from my Banana and Rum Brownies, though I had run of out rum this time and had to borrow my boyfriends rather lovely imported Brandy and due to lack of brown bananas's I upped the butter quantity a bit. Fortunately the experimentation worked and it resulted in a heavenly batch of brownies that didn't make it past the day! They were made for my friend M's birthday and were very well received at the party!

You will need a lined 8"square cake pan.

Ingredients:


100g butter
150g golden caster sugar
50g light brown muscavado sugar
115g plain chocolate, broken up
2 eggs
2 tbsp good brandy
1tbsp golden syrup
100g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
100g dark chocolate chunks
1/2 tsp baking powder

2 heaped tbsp mini marshmallows
1 large very ripe banana  mashed up


Pre-heat oven to 180o

1) Melt in a saucepan the butter, syrup and sugars. Stir in the cocoa and baking powder and remove from the heat.

2) Meanwhile mix the flour, egg, brandy and banana together. Fold into the melted chocolate mixture. Scatter over the chocolate chunks and stir lightly so they start to melt into the mixture.

3) Spoon into the lined pan, sprinkle over the mini marshmallows and press into the cake batter lightly and bake for 35-40 minutes - my oven is quite slow but modern ovens are faster! A skewer should come out fairly clean, not as clean as cake mix but enough to show its just cooked! It should be cracking slightly on top.

4) Leave to cool in the pan for ten minutes then transfer on the liner to a cooling rack. Place in an airtight container when cool.

The brownies were moist, chocolaty and are a definite keeper! Plus you can pretend they are healthy-ish with the banana addition! You can't really taste it but it just adds to the texture in a good way!

Sweet Potato Brownies

Yes, I did cross the naughty but nice brownie border and introduced them to vegetables. Surprisingly they made great buddies, resulting in that slightly gooey, soft yet dense brownie feeling but with a surprisingly stingy amount of chocolate! Therefore I can pretend they are very slightly healthier than your regular brownies... oh and for the record, no they do not taste like vegetable matter! I also used some extra virgin coconut oil, which really also you can pretend is a full blown health food in its own right... (I will leave you to draw your own conclusions, I have never pretended to be a nutrition expert!)

On the night I baked these brownies I hadn't actually intended to bake but halfway through grating what seemed like a never ending sized monster sweet potato to make our veggie burgers, I thought hmmm...lets bake something... there are after all only so many sweet potato burgers one can eat for dinner! I had baked once before with sweet potato, with not so great results but this time was a winner! Now I won't lie you must enjoy the flavour of coconut as due to the coconut oil it does give off the aroma - but if you enjoy that, then you will love these brownies!!

Next time I think I will try steaming and then mashing the sweet potato, as to be honest grating is my least favourite kitchen chore! Let me know if you try it the mashed way!

Makes one square pan:

Ingredients:

220g sweet potato, grated
2 large eggs
130g coconut oil
150g self-raising wholemeal flour
100g light brown sugar
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate
25g white chocolate chunks
100g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp coconut nectar
1/2 tsp sea salt


Method:

1) Place the grated sweet potato in a bowl, cover with cling film and steam in the microwave for  minutes.

2) In a saucepan melt the coconut oil and sugars, and simmer on a medium heat for 5 minutes, then add the coconut nectar - it should sizzle a little add the dark chocolate and put to one side, stirring until melted. Pre-heat oven to 180o. 

3) In a bowl sift the flour, salt and cocoa together. Lightly beat the vanilla with eggs, and mix gently into the flour mix. Fold in the sweet potato, then the prepared chocolate sugar mix until just combined.

4) Line the pan with parchment paper, pour in the brownie batter and scatter over the white chocolate chunks.

5) Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or so, or until cooked but still slightly springy to touch and a skewer comes out relatively clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before lifting onto a wire rack.

Cuts into 8 or so pieces depending on appetite!

My boyfriend gave them 10/10 and that was before he knew there was sweet potato in them!

As my brownies used a sneaky vegetable in the form of sweet potato I have sent them over to this months Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy's Extra Veg linky, held at Veggie Desserts this month:

If you fancy some extra veg check out these fabulous recipes from some great bloggers:

Butternut Squash & Spelt Cake from Fab Food 4 All
Carrot Cake Muffins and Apple & Custard Lasagne from Foodie Quine
Sweet Potato and Ginger Cookies from Rough Measures
Courgette Muffins from Recipes from a Pantry

Vegan Baking Adventures with Marmalade and Sweet Potatoes...

Recently I was set a little challenge.. well a last minute game changing challenge even to make some cakes for my friends Animal charity stall – and the twist in that they needed to be Vegan! Now dairy free is easy, I make plenty with with oil or butter substitutes without breaking a sweat but eggless? The glue that binds the ingredients lovingly and makes them rise? That’s a whole new story to be written! I have once made some vegan muffins but I repeat the once part, they just didn’t do it for me. By some miracle, a little googling, an hour slowly losing the will to live in the shop trying to find the egg replacer stuff with no help from customer services - apparently it was in stock but the aisle was upstairs but upstairs is clothing etc so in other words no idea whatsoever, and eventually finding it myself in the racking above the special diets section, on tippytoes trying to grab the box I somehow pulled it off – it was not easy but I am quite proud that both cakes were most edible and didn’t lack in any areas flavour wise at all!

The first cake was made fairly on track with the base recipe for a sweet potato spice cake, though we made an alternative topping using some scary dairy less cream cheese (note do not sniff it!), icing sugar, marmalade and a little vanilla, oh and something new to me in being vegetable shortening, and a little vegan margarine. I have a unique selection of ingredients right now to use! The icing was a little runnier than I would of liked slicing it up but it did stay on mostly so that’s the main part! Overall the spicing of the cake was so tasty – fragrant clove, cinnamon and ginger worked in a glorious harmony together. Even the weird smelling frosting was rather tasty, resembling the slightly sour creamy like topping you get on carrot cake. The sprinkling of crystallized ginger and crunchy toasted hazlenuts finished it off perfectly.

The plan:

The Finished cake:

Second up was a really gorgeously moist chocolate orange and marmalade cake, topped with a gooey chocolate frosting I made with a little of the marmalade, some icing sugar, a squeeze of orange juice, the zest and a dash of cocoa powder. The marmalade was sent to me by Robertson's in a special edition Paddington Bear jar - I love marmalade and the jar vanished fast!

The sponge itself was adapted from a Nigella storecupboard chocolate cake recipe, which I jazzed up with my favourite Polish dark cocoa powder, half a fresh orange juiced and a scary new item to me known as egg replacer, mentioned at the top of this post! Somehow the magic worked and produced a gooey, almost brownie like chocolate orange heaven! I honestly feel like converting to camp no egg now it was so good! I will make it again, measuring this time what I did and post the recipe in full for you to enjoy!

So any tips out there for first time Vegan bakers? Its definitely something I will explore further and hopefully share my journey with you!

Godiva stocking Giveaway - 03/12/2014 **NOW CLOSED**

When I was little I have fond memories of waking up on Christmas morning to find a stocking (or a carrier bag in latter years!) filled with treats, hung just inside my bedroom on the old fashioned towel rail to explore! It usually had a net of chocolate coins, wrapped in their glitzy gold foil, a traditional Clementine and a few small toys to play with. I will have to ask my parents if there was anything else as I can't quite remember that far back!

Of course the main event of the stockings contents was of course the chocolate and now I am sadly a grown up I don’t tend to get given a stocking by Santa (I obviously must have been far too naughty!) but this year I have been given this gorgeous festively red knitted Christmas stocking from luxury chocolate makers Godiva! It has a beautiful gold Poinsettia design and you can reuse it next year too!

Inside the Godiva Christmas stocking its stuffed with a selection of limited edition Milk, Dark and White chocolates, all in festive designs and retails at £17. Needless to say as much as chocolate coins wrapped in foil still warm my heart, the luxury Godiva chocolates are a hell of a lot more tastier!

Picture remains the property of Anne's Kitchen

So have you been naughty or nice this year? I have a spare Godiva Christmas stocking to giveaway to one very nice reader! Simply enter my easy rafflecopter competition below to win this gorgeous stocking and let me know if you have been nice this year and why you should receive one!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



With thanks to Luxx PR

**T&C’s – Competition open to UK mainland addresses only. Your prize is non exchangeable and will be sent directly from the company stated above. I will contact the winner within 24 hours, if no response within 5 days the competition will be re-drawn and a new winner will be chosen.**

Getting sweet with Baru – a Marshmallowy Giveaway! 02/12/2014 **NOW CLOSED**

On the second day of Christmas Baru will send to you… a wonderful gift pack especially created just for my readers! Your luxury pack will have the following treats inside waiting for you to salivate over:

• A tub of Swirly Chocolate Powder with Marshmallows
• A tub of Spicy Chai Latte
• A box of Fleur de Sel Caramel Marshmallows (54g)

This Christmas you can find Baru’s new delectable and contemporary confectionery range, available from Waitrose in the UK. Its made in Belgium I have been working so hard to test their treats for you and we loved the Baru ‘Fleur de sel caramel’ marshmallows best! 

The ‘Fleur de sel caramel’ are soft pillowly vanilla scented marshmallows contain a little sweet caramel nugget with a sniffle of sea salt and are encased under a crispy dark chocolate shell, snuggled up in its own little wrapper. The slightly bitter dark chocolate flavoured lingered pleasantly on my tongue and left me wanting more!

However… if you are not so fond of the dark chocolate, don’t worry – Baru do Milk chocolate coated marshmallows too! Also in the range are their instant hot drinks – I have been sampling their Chai Latte lately, which is most welcome on these cold wintery nights! Its got a little hint of spice and whilst it says to stir into hot milk I have been lazy and used hot water and it still tastes delicious!

There is something about a sweet being individually wrapped that appeals, its makes a treat even more special. Baru’s little gift boxes containing four marshmallows rrp at £2.99 and make an ideal stocking filler or little treat to give to a loved one this Christmas.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**T&C’s – Competition open to UK mainland addresses only. Your prize is non exchangeable and will be sent directly from the company stated above. I will contact the winner within 24 hours, if no response within 5 days the competition will be re-drawn and a new winner will be chosen.**

Banana Bread Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Every week despite our small household of two we go through a lot of eggs - from simple omelettes for supper to baking all sorts of lovely cakes or just a simple egg wash on something naughty but nice like a homemade sausage roll, and buying free range is the bare minimum of quality for us. Also with thanks to the Lion Quality Mark on the eggs we buy, it guarantees that they have been laid by hens within the UK, and are produced to the highest standards of food safety. Eggs are full of nutrition too so you can pretend that cake is healthy too! The egg white nutrition part in particular is protein rich, carb free and low in fat. Okay so yeah the rest of the cake is a maybe a bit more carby but its winter afterall and we need more insulation!

This gorgeous Banana Bread Bundt Cake with Chocolate Glaze makes no exception and naturally contained free range eggs, all date stamped with the Lion quality mark on them. It also means the eggs were stamped with a date, so I can tell how fresh they are, plus the laying hen has been vaccinated against salmonella. Something I really don't want to give to my loved ones along with a nice piece of cake! I was an 80's baby and only vaguely remember the news back then but what I do remember was Salmonella being all over the news, how fortunate we are now!

Moving on to the cake  the lovely Betty Ann from the Asian in America website gave me permission to post this recipe, after I had spotted it in her archives, that she had borrowed from a book – a fabulous sounding one called "Breakfast for Dinner" by Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth. I really love how recipes that work get passed between people – as you know they are loved and by baking them for new people to love, you therefore spread the love around! Cake also equals happiness so not only are you spreading love you create happiness! Something this world is in short supply at times with so much sadness amongst us, we have to also remember there are good people too and that love will always win.

Also as its from an American website its in cups so apologies as I know for some this can be off-putting but I have translated the butter for you as I already own measuring cups and used them for the dry ingredients and converted the temperature. (I adore my Russian Doll ones and can highly recommend them!) I made a different icing compared to the original version, mainly as I forgot to buy cream during a bit of a daft moment in the the supermarket and I didn’t think the crème fraiche I had instead bought would be quite the same in the icing…also I used sultanas as the raisins have gone missing! I swear there was a bag in the pantry…think I need to have a good tidy up in there!

Anyway I digress – this cake was delicious! I adore the regular banana bread I have made a zillion times from the Avoca cookbook but after falling in love with my bundt tin all over again thanks to cake release spray from Dr Oetker, when this popped onto my laptop screen I knew it had to be my next bake! Miraculously for once my oven didn't ruin it too! (lots of issues!) Its bananary without being in ya face nananana and the little drizzle of chocolate icing completes it! I also got to sneak over some Christmas tree sprinkles too despite it only being October! It is of course also a fabulous way to use up neglected bananas!

*You will need a large bundt tin - mine has a 24cm base and is quite deep*

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup caster sugar

¾ cup Butter (171g)

2 large eggs

3 large bananas, mashed

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup milk

½ cup sultanas (or raisins)

Glaze:

4 heaped tbsp icing sugar

1 heaped tbsp dark cocoa powder (I always use a dark one from the local Polish shop)

Sprinkles of choice

Pre-heat oven to about 180o

Sift together the flour, salt, bicarb and baking powder.

In a mixer, unless you are feeling particularly strong cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, until well mixed. Mash the banana and add along with vanilla, mix again to just combine.

Add a third of the dry mix along with a third of the milk, and repeat until all mixed well. Stir through the sultanas and pour into the prepared bundt pan, smooth over.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes away clean and its lightly golden on top. Your kitchen will smell rather lovely at this moment and you might want to dive in. But resist the urge, let it cool a little - say 10-15 minutes before releasing the sides of the pan/ turning onto a wire rack (will depend on your pan!). Allow to cool as long as you can endure before making the icing.

Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa, add a teaspoon of water a time until you have a desirable consistency and spoon over the cake. Add a nice scattering of sprinkles over the top of your choosing.

Ours lasted 24 hours. Probably would keep for a few days.

With heartfelt thanks to Betty Ann for sharing this wonderful bake, and in turn the original recipe keepers Lindsay Landis and Taylor Hackbarth for creating such a lovely treat!

Disclaimer: I was not paid to mention British Lion Eggs but its something I do really believe in and I received an electric egg boiler as a gift which I am slowly mastering!

The End of Chocolate Week..

Chocolate Week started several weeks back for me - well to be honest its all year around with me as I am a bit of a chocaholic and despite all my best intentions its bought on a regular basis - I am a dark fan usually but if it involves nuts (or bits of crunchie!) then sign me up to pretty much any chocolate! 

This current run started with a wonderful evening at a glitzy event with Ferrero Rocher - they have an amazing range of different Ferrero treats this year for Christmas, from tree decorations to towers of treats and I have been busy tasting for you and in a few weeks time I have an amazing competition to win some so please do come back soon for a chance to win some!

On Monday this week I had a few brown bananas that needed urgent CPR and I spotted on a Filipino based cookery blog this awesome Banana Bundt cake which I glazed with a bitter Polish cocoa glaze and of course sprinkles - my Christmas ones! I will post the recipe very soon as it was so delicious it would unfair to keep it to myself!

Moving on to Wednesday I tweaked another banana based sort of oaty cookie recipe - this still needs a little work, including not using cheap baking paper to line the tin but they are vanishing fairly fast from the tupperware container so there is hope yet!

..and because, well we obviously didn't have enough chocolate during the week we braved London on a Saturday to visit The Chocolate Show, held at Olympia West to get a little more cocoa-fied (yes I know its a made up word but I rather like it...) On arrival it was heaving and packed full of some amazing chocolates from all over the world, plus cookery demonstrations and activities for all ages!

On the theatre stage we caught the end of chocolatier Paul A Young's demo, then managed to find a seat and we watched one of the first Great British Bake Off contestants make some rather lush looking chocolate and salted caramel tarts and managed to fight over share the last cookie they handed out at the end! 

Now where to begin! Naturally after plenty of tastings I bought several bars of various chocolates - including a tongue teasing Roasted Sesame Dark chocolate bar from Lindt (and a rather lovely Caramel with sea salt and a bar of dark mint too!) My dearest is not normally a dark chocolate fan but he surprisingly enjoyed these - maybe I will have to start hiding my dark chocolate treats!

Next up was some German bitesize chocolates what I called bundt shaped but the chap on the stall looked in slight disdain and said they were based on Kugelhopfs (sp?! ) but are known as Goufrais - these were unusual in being served slightly chilled - they almost melt on your tongue with surprisingly dark yet creamy! I had to buy a big bag to keep us well stocked!

Now writing captions is hard when you have not taken many notes and your head is full of cocoa but this is a round-up of the highlights that we 'tested' out! The things I do for you my dear readers!

Clockwise: Mini jars of popping candy- would make great wedding favours! Brownies - we tried the white chocolate and pistachio one - could do with being a tiny bit sweeter but overall still lovely, a sign that made me giggle a little, last up a range of rather lovely bars - I particularly liked the 70% cocoa one- was still quite creamy and not bitter:

Clockwise: Beautiful chocolate teacups! And then its nice to know good old Smarties are translated as well, er Smarties! Then some Vietnamese bars -the packaging in particular I loved but they tasted pretty good too! Then a glimpse of a box of mixed brownies -they were all various delicious flavours including salted caramel - think I need to do some more baking!

I really cannot squeeze too many more pictures into this post but here a few more to tempt you with that I really can't leave out! They include some amazing outfits made of chocolate, pumpkins for Halloween and some divine Patisserie wines I picked up for Christmas!

There really was something for everyone at the show - as an avid dark chocolate fan it highly appealed but my milky loving boyfriend also enjoyed the show too! It was great to discover chocolate that little bit more and I am full of chocolate dreams now!

Disclaimer: I received tickets for entry into the Chocolate Show but all opinions are my own and all products were purchased by myself. Pictures remain the property of Anne's Kitchen

Rum baked Peaches with Chocolate Coconut Ice cream for We Should Cocoa

Sometimes I have too much time on my hands. Okay this is rare admittedly but the old brain goes wandering, normally in the middle of doing something else and it resulted in some random googling on my phone in the kitchen (our signal booster box is worth its hassle getting it!), whilst making dinner and the outcome was a tub of chocolate coconut ice cream! I am not entirely sure what provoked me that evening other than this unrelenting heatwave that's slowly cooking me through but it was a good provocation!

Back tracking a little, with regards to one of the recipe components a few months back I posted up an article for Good Housekeeping on creating an alternative dairy and gluten free pudding, in the form of my lush Sticky ginger and Almond rice pudding. As part of its development I had received a box full of free from items, and one of those items was a hot chocolate syrup called Choc Shot…which became the chocolate part of this recipe as it was, well, er easier! *blushing with shame* It also has only 14 calories per teaspoon, 100% natural and low GI and diabetic friendly so you can really tell yourself its a healthy ice cream treat!  

Anyway, despite the heatwave it resulted in me playing around in the kitchen the other night and I decided to make a batch of coconut milk ice cream, using the syrup as a chocolate flavouring, along with some forgotten about meringue nests, after coming up with the idea of some kind of semi-freddo dessert… I managed three lots of hand churning but eventually fell asleep despite the best intentions of some inconsiderate neighbour's doing their best to keep the block awake with their incessant shouting, shrill laughter and loud music, so the next day I had to let it thaw a little for some more half hourly beatings... I think it still needs a teeny bit of work texture wise as its frankly a bugger to scoop out but it worked so well with the baked peaches and so I have forgiven it!

Next on to the baked peach part - Ohmigod where has u been all my life! I took inspiration for this quick pudding from the recent Waitrose magazine, though I pretty much exchanged all the ingredients apart from the peaches as to what we had in the cupboards! Fortunately it still was fabulous and even called for my wicked auntie to comment that I really should be the size of a barrel after sharing pictures on my facebook page! It is fruit mostly...! The sweet soft peach flesh, combined with crunchy sweet biscuit and hint of spiced vanilla rum is a heady concoction and one i feel might just become a regular dish in my kitchen!

Coconut and Chocolate Icecream

1 tin full fat coconut milk, good quality.

8 tsp chocolate syrup

3 meringue nests - not essential - mine dissolved mostly!

Place the coconut milk in a blender and blitz until smooth. Combine the syrup and crumble over the meringue nests, turn into a suitable container for freezing.

Every 30 minutes, take a whisk or fork to the mixture breaking up any ice crystals for about 4-5 times. Ta da!

Rum baked Peaches

These are so quick and easy, and entirely worth making!

2 peaches, halved

2 digestive biscuits, crushed

1 tbsp golden granulated sugar

1 heaped tsp butter

2 tbsp spiced rum

Crush the biscuits in a small bowl or pestle & mortar. 

Then add the sugar and rub through the butter – best to cut into little pieces, until you have a crumble mix of sorts. 

Spoon into the peaches and place on a lined baking tin. Drizzle over the rum and bake for 15 mins @ 180o and serve warm, with the ice cream.

I am sending my lovely pretend its healthy treat to this months We Should Cocoa, held by the lovely Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

Coconut Brownies (Dairy free and relatively healthy too!)

Going back a little while and slightly off tangent but do bear with me here - I decided to look into having my eyesight corrected, and after the initial assessment I couldn't drive for a while due to my eyes having had dye put in them, nor see very far for a short while and so I had to keep local and stumbled across a health food shop, where a lady was promoting a particular brand of coconut oil – it was the first I heard of it – and we ended up having quite a chat about its benefits both nutritionally and cosmetically and.. as it was quite expensive and I was about to part with a rather large sum of money for the surgery I didn't purchase any at the time but it was lodged in my mind ever since.. though if I recall correctly I did leave with a packet of coconut flakes which were a little more purse friendly and provided the topping for these brownies! And in case you are wondering, yes I did have my eyes 'done' and I am very happy with the results!

Coconut Brownies

Moving on, a few weeks ago I received a box of lovely coconut based goodies from Cocafina.  they have a delicious range of all things healthy and coconut based, and following this post I have a little giveaway of some coconuty treats for you so don't forget to come back soon! 

From my box of Cocafina goodies, I used their coconut nectar and coconut oil to make these bad boy brownies. Or should they be greedy girl goodies as they are technically good for you? These happen to be dairy free too so are good for certain dietary restrictions. There is also fruit in them too so you can almost pretend they are good for you, in the form of mashed ripe banana to replace some of the usual butter, in fact there is no butter at all in these – I used just 60g of coconut oil instead for the whole batch! As a result they are certainly lower in fat than regular brownies, always a win! 

To replace the sugar I used their Coconut nectar, which is extracted from the sap of coconut flower buds, its lower GI than compared to regular brown sugar – 35 compared to brown sugar at 64, so far less spiking to your blood sugars. Have I sold them to you yet?

Not really knowing how the coconut nectar was going to affect the mixture, both sweetness and texture wise as I normally melt the sugar, which is more dense – and coconut nectar is the already consistency of maple syrup, nor the coconut oil in lieu of butter, I decided to base these on my banana and rum brownies and hope for the best mostly! My oven is on the blink, and everything baked now gets cooked at what the oven dial says is 210o which in reality is about 170o or thereabouts!

For my first proper experiment they came out pretty darn good. A little fudginess to the texture, crunchy coconut flakes on top with a delicate coconut note mingled with the slightly bitter chocolate. They were popular at work and everyone was intrigued as to what both coconut oil and nectar were, I should of left a card with them I repeated myself so much! They are best left a few hours before diving in to allow the coconut on top to soften and the flavour's to mingle together.

Coconut Brownies

Ingredients:

60g coconut oil

200mg coconut nectar

100g dark chocolate

2 large eggs

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder 

1 tsp baking powder

2 medium, ripe mashed bananas

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 175/ 180o depending on your oven. Prepare a lined 8” square baking tin.

In a saucepan, weigh out the coconut oil, coconut nectar and heat until melted, stir in the chocolate and leave for a couple of minutes to cool slightly.

Mix together the flour, banana, vanilla, egg, baking powder and cocoa powder. Stir through the melted chocolate mixture until just combined and pour into a lined 8” square baking tin.

Bake for about 35 minutes or until it bounces to touch and the kitchen smells like you are in chocolate heaven – it’s a fine line between well cooked and raw so best to check with a toothpick – if minimal crumb comes out its ready. Cool for 15 minutes or so in the tin before placing on a rack to cool fully.

I have sent my bake over to Casa Costello's Bake of the Week post:

Many thanks to Cocafina for my delicious samples! 

All images and content are the property of Anne's Kitchen and must not be used without prior consent.

Rocky Road for July's No Waste Food Challenge

This was a proper clear out the cupboards recipe, and I am using it to open up July’s No Waste Food challenge which I am hosting this month, with thanks to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary who is allowing me to take hold of the reins for July! I have been a bit sparse what with life getting in the way so its a good way to dive back in to blogging!

Normally biscuits are like gold dust here, I fill the tin... a few days later...its empty.. however for some reason un-be known to the laws of biscuit munching, a box of shortbread fingers was sadly gathering dust at the back of the cupboard. In fact the box informed me it was best before November last year. Oops. It was sealed however and for this recipe it worked perfectly! 

Next came the white chocolate – chocolate in this household is like those fast car movies – gone in 60 seconds but it turns out my boyfriend doesn’t like white chocolate and I’d had a few bars hanging around from about Christmas time that Sainsbury's had very kindly sent my way, that were simply begging to be used up, along with a bar of milk hazelnut chocolate that I had hidden from the other resident chocoholic… 

Last but not least was a bag of some fancy dried fruit and nut mix, that we just didn't seem to be getting through despite it being here since Christmas! Since a career change recently, I now have weekends to myself and find myself making things most weekends, and this Rocky Road was no exception! Born out of using up these odds and sods to create something a bit more special. Turns out neglected ingredients can work a treat!

Now prior to decorating with lots of sugar confetti and magic sparkle it er, looked like baby sick and I have decided to not share that picture with you to save putting you off! Now don’t leave me – it is salvageable trust me! Like most things in life a little sparkle saves the day!  

Ingredients:

200g white chocolate

100g milk hazelnut chocolate

100g shortbread

50g dried fruit and nut mix
40g mini marshmallows

Sugar confetti/ sprinkles of choice

Start by crumbling up the shortbread into small pieces, stir in the fruit and nuts. Melt all the white chocolate with half the milk chocolate either slowly on the hob in a heavy pan/ bain marie or gently zap in bursts in the microwave and stir through the biscuit fruit mix, spoon into a 8” square silicon cake pan or line a tin with baking paper and chill until set.

Melt the remaining chocolate and spoon over the rocky road in drizzles, sprinkle over your desired confetti or cake sprinkles/ fairy dust and chill for a couple of hours.

When its fully set, turn out onto a chopping board and with a sharp knife cut into squares:

My Rocky Road was shockingly good, it lasted less than a day in the tub! I took some over on Father's Day to my brothers house and it seemed to vanish into thin air! I think we fought over the scraps...Considering it was my first attempt at Rocky Road we were all very happy to eat it! Even the white chocolate haters wolfed it down! And I have to thank one of my eagle eyed commenters - I had indeed forgotten to write that I also added the last of a bag of mini marshmallows - not a leftover at all as they vanish fast here!

So now the challenge is out there bloggers - send me your best recipes for what would have otherwise gone to waste! I am looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! This is my first time using a linky software so apologies if it doesn't quite work!

Challenge Conditions:

1. Please link up your url using the linky at the bottom of this challenge post.

2. Feel free to republish old posts just make sure you add a link to the current challenge and add the challenge badge (the blue badge at the top of this post).

3. Make sure you link up before the end of July!

4. Posts will be added to the No Waste Food Challenge Pinterest Board to help spread the food waste prevention love!

5. Please make sure your post includes a link back to this blog post and the relevant month’s host.

6. Tweet @TangoRaindrop and me @anneskitchen with the tag #NoWasteFoodChallenge and we will re-tweet all that we see.

Banana and Chocolate Cookies

For months now I've had a packet of home made cranberry and orange butter in the freezer. Initially I think I made it to go with Christmas meats or pastry even but for some reason it got forgotten... it was in the frosty depths for quite a while.. but when you only have two freezer draws you have to be fairly efficient at rotating things though somehow this kept off the radar...until yesterday... as in the fruit bowl was also this:

Fruit ripens very quickly at home, its a warm flat at the best of times and I am sure the bananas were a fairly recent buy but had already gone er, black nearly and it was high time it got used.. I have a repertoire of banana recipes but most use two or more, and I only had this sad one... fortunately I remembered a recipe I had picked out a few months back for a Random Recipe challenge but never got entered as life typically interfered.. the butter called for was the regular kind, however I was determined to use the flavoured butter up and after a quick lick to check it wasn't too far gone I decided to give it life in the form of these cookies:

It was also my birthday this week, and I finally got a 2nd decent baking tray so managed to cook them all in one go, rather than improvising with a roasting tin and swapping trays around, so much easier! Unfortunately I am still off sick from work but without speaking too soon I am finally feeling a bit more human and hoping to return in the near future...now I can just about get the ingredients out of the bottom cupboard I definitely feel happier at least!

I have borrowed this cookie recipe from a book simply called 'Cookies' by Love Food. Its a great book packed with 200 cookie recipes! The original recipe called for raisins so I have listed as optional but I decided to omit them with using the cranberry studded butter, I also used cinnamon instead of mixed spice, mainly as I don't have any! For the chocolate chunks I used 3/4 of a bar of Fine Cook's milk chocolate from Dr Oetker hacked up with a knife, which worked perfectly and kept its shape well and tasted good too!

Makes apparently up to 20, I got er 12. They are nicely sized though...

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar
125g soft butter
175g self raising flour
1 large beaten egg
1 mashed ripe banana
2 tbsp milk
100g chocolate, cut into chunks
1 tsp cinnamon (or the mixed spice)

Optional:
55g raisins
1 tsp mixed spice

Oven 190o/ 375f/ gas 5

Line two large baking trays/ cookie sheets

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, beat in the egg. Add the mashed banana and mix until smooth.

Sift the flour and cinnamon together, add to the mix followed by them milk to make a smooth consistency. (I used my k chef on low speed) Fold in the chocolate, and raisins if using.

Drop dessertspoons onto a baking sheet, allowing them space! They will spread out!

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and still soft in the middle. Leave to cool slightly on the trays and transfer to a wire rack to fully cool down.

This is what one looks upside down - so you can see the lovely chocolatey chunks - they are really rather too edible, soft and cake like but just about keep together. I love the fragrant orange scented butter and will now have to make some more I think for the next batch, providing of course I can fully remember what went in it...

As I managed to not only use the sad lonely banana and the frosty orange butter I am entering these cookies into the No Waste Food challenge, set up by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary and this month hosted by Farmers Girl. Don't forget I am July's host so save your leftovers ;-)!

Thanks also to Dr Oetker for providing the chocolate!

Chocolate and Crème De Menthe Cherry Loaf Cake

Sometime last year on a day trip out, I think possibly Huntingdon way with my dad if my brain remembers correctly, I found in a little off licence these gorgeous almost glow in the dark green Crème de Menthe flavoured cocktail cherries! I had never seen them before or since then on the high street but I have found on the internet at least for when these run out! Though I probably need to order several jars to make my delivery charge more palatable! However I have spotted some others in the range that look intriguing so isn't too much of a hardship!

  

I spent a long time since buying them deciding what on earth I was going to actually do with them, and whilst the finished result was delicious it didn't really show off the e numbered glow but I still have half a jar left so a little more experimentation to be done I think!

The cake came out perfectly with a delicate hint of mint and a soft crumb - I had got B to drop a wedge off to my mum on his way to work and not long after had a text back asking for the recipe! Even without the cherries its a great bake and I hope you enjoy it as much too! I adapted from a recipe in one of favourite books titled 'Baking' which is sadly no longer in print but my go to book!

Makes one loaf cake

You will need a 2lb loaf tin, lined

Ingredients:

2 eggs beaten

8 Crème de Menthe flavoured cocktail cherries, sliced

1 tbsp of the Crème de Menthe cherries liquid

125g butter or soft margarine

125g caster sugar

125g self raising flour

1 tbsp Cocoa powder

50g plain chocolate, melted

Soft butter/ margarine

Pre-heat the oven to 180o/350f/ Gas 4

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and cherry liquid, fold through the flour until combined. Separate the mixture into two bowls and add the cocoa powder, cherries and melted chocolate to one of the mixes and combine. 

Using alternate spoons fill the lined tin with both mixtures and swirl lightly. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes away cleanly when inserted.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool fully.

Our golden rule is everything tastes better with custard but its also delicious without! The little pockets of chocolate mintyness makes for a delicious cake!