Today I decided to try some valentine treats out in the kitchen. Now that the kitchen is closed I can let you know what I have been busy doing and show you some of the end results too. Lots of chocolatey fun has been had and the washing up has been completed. Now for the blogging bit with a cup of coffee to hand.
My first bake was the valentine cookies without the use of a heart shaped cutter which I was determined to master. I think I have a recipe in mind which involves my favourite ingredient peanut butter. In my household there is only my husband and myself who likes peanut butter so I am going to have to make some oatmeal cookies for my children (request from my daughter) as they want a change from brownies for their packed lunches this week. The peanut butter will give a firmer texture to the cookie dough prior to baking and help the cookie keep its shape in the oven whilst baking. When using the Nutella in the cookies last week I found that the Nutella spread seemed to liquefy or melt really in the heat of the oven which caused the cookie to lose its shape.
I have made a short video to show how to make the heart shape. I may add the video to my website once I have edited it. It is quite a fiddly job but they don’t have to be perfect as my baked cookies show. The cookies are melt in the mouth good and well worth the effort.
With the oatmeal cookies I am going to add chocolate chips which will give a nice taste to these cookies – a sort of inside out chocolate digestive biscuit. Something a bit different for the children to try. I am sure the children and probably the hubby will appreciate these cookies. As I didn’t have any chocolate chips left over I just chopped up some cooking chocolate into bite size chunks and they worked perfectly. These are a big hit with the family.
For dinner today I am making a broth to go with dumplings. I am using broccoli, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots all diced up and added together in the slow cooker with stock. By tea time tonight it should be all bubbling merrily and ready to eat.
I am going to make some no bake cookie dough for the children but make it into truffles just in time for valentines day. Think I may wrap some up for the husband. Ha ha ha. This edible no bake cookie dough reminds me of the times when I baked with my mother and Nana except I was allowed to eat bits of whatever was left over on the counter top before they cleared away. Even licking the bowl clean was allowed in those days but it seems to be frowned upon these days. My children will love it when I say “yes you can eat that piece of dough” which I usually say anyway when they are pestering me to try something before it is baked. A bit of pastry or scone mix is nothing major in my eyes for them to try so I still allow them that teeny bit like I was allowed to have. I can see me having to make some more of this cookie dough during the week.
These truffles are quite sugary so I am going to try and cut back on some of this in the recipe which I will add to my website. The cookie dough does contain flour in it and in my mind I am thinking I will try and bake some of it just to see what happens. I am being a bit nosey here and trying to work out what will be best. Normally when I make truffles I use a water based ganache and then add different flavourings to it but this is going to be something different. I covered the dough with white, milk and dark chocolate. My personal favourite was the dark chocolate but my family preferred different ones. I actually prefer the water ganache truffles better but my children like anything made from chocolate. It hasn’t stopped them from eating the others and I don’t think there will be any left for Valentines Day.
The recipes for these bakes will be available in my recipe book and I will be adding one to my recipe of the week page on my website (as a valentine special).