It is Monday again and I have managed to complete quite a few of my jobs but all I seem to do is add to the list so I still have loads to do. I made a Risotto for dinner but it turned into a Risotto with a twist. After making this in the slow cooker I have decided that you shouldn’t use a slow cooker for Risotto as it just turns to mush and I prefer to see the grains of rice. It is definitely not a meal to leave in the slow cooker all day whilst you are out of work – for sure! Never mind at least I tried it . It did get eaten especially by my husband and one child but next time I will make it the traditional way in a large frying pan.
My Risotto contained mushrooms, onion, garlic, sweetcorn and vegetable stock. I did not add white wine as my children would not have liked it with the wine in it. My twist was that I added curry powder, black pepper, turmeric and cayenne pepper to spice up the Risotto a bit. The meal turned into a very spicy curry based homely meal which was soaked up with chunky bread. It would have gone well with poppadoms to give it a Indian feel – very strange meal indeed.
Also, over the weekend I baked another Giant Doughnut Pizza and the children decorated it with a Valentine theme and gave it to their Dad. However, he didn’t get to eat it all himself as the children helped themselves to quite a bit of it. Needless to say, the doughnut didn’t even last 24 hours so it must have been good. Last time I made the doughnut my husband said it could have been sweeter and I disagreed with him but this time he said it was just right. I think the fact there was so much chocolate covering the top of the doughnut that it complimented the doughnut base perfectly ( and I didn’t add any extra sugar to the recipe).
On Sunday, I baked the savoury bakes ordered by a local art and craft shop called “Canny Crafty“. This shop has a ceramic and pottery painting theme with a small coffee shop/cafe inside it. It has a very homely atmosphere and the owners are very pleasant. My first order for them was for Sausage Rolls, Corned Beef Slice and Cheese & Onion Slice which I delivered this morning. I hope my savoury bakes are a hit at Canny Crafty. Fingers crossed x. All of these recipes can be found in my recipe books which are available through Amazon.
Also, I baked some Cookies with a difference. Ones which could be used to dunk into sweet sauces such as caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and marshmallow fluff etc,. The cookies baked perfectly and were nice and crisp, cut easily into bite size chunks or fingers and are perfect for dunking. These cookies were Cinnamon & Chocolate Cookies but they could be lots of different flavours and you could easily make them gluten free. I am not sure about egg free – I still have to try that out.
One thing I didn’t get to bake is the Shortbread with different flavourings. This is something I will have a go at tomorrow as we still have the Cinnamon and Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites to finish off. Maybe I will make a chocolate sauce for them to dip the cookies in for dinner tonight. This is the recipe for the cookies:
Cinnamon & Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites Recipe.
Course: Cakes, traybakes and cake decorating, RecipesCuisine: traybakes, sweet treatDifficulty: Easy24
servings10
minutes30
minutes115
kcal40
minutesThere are many flavours you can add to these bites.
Ingredients
95g butter
150g soft brown sugar
1 egg;250g plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5 tsp salt
100g chocolate chips
icing sugar for dusting
Directions
- Preheat the oven to Gas 4.
- Line a baking tray.
- In a mixing bowl, weigh out the ingredients for the dough.
- Using an electric whisk, mix together to form a dough.
- Transfer the dough to the baking tray and press down evenly.
- Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.
- Switch the oven off.
- Slice the cookie try into pieces and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and tray.
- When cool, dust with icing sugar and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Nutritionally, one of these Cookie Bites contains 115 calories, 4.7g total fat (6% daily total fat), 16.7g total carbohydrate (6% daily total carbohydrate), 0.5g fibre (2% daily fibre) (based on a 2000 calorie diet).
For “Valentine’s Day” I am planning on baking a Giant Oreo Brownie which has been a great addition to my webshop and it has been very popular this last week or so. If you order a tray of the Oreo Brownie now it will not arrive in time for Valentine’s Day – sorry. The brownie will be heart shaped and the decoration can be done by the children. I will share the photos tomorrow when I am finished baking. I am using a heart shaped tin for this but you can still make heart shaped cakes and other yummy goodies with round and square cakes. This is a diagram I made for a post I wrote last year if you want to have a try.
Even though it is half term my children seem to be having a busy time. So far there has been a sleepover for one and a cinema for one. Tomorrow, there is a tea out for one child, a sleepover for another child and two children are coming to sleepover here. Madness I know and all on Valentine’s Day. Never mind I am sure they will all enjoy themselves. It will be me that needs a week off to recover. Hahaha!!
At the weekend, I have orders for Oreo Brownies, Rainbow Cakes and Corned Beef Slice for a family christening then on Monday the children go back to school. I don’t know when they will fit their homework in with everything that I have going on.