Chewy Ginger Stem Cookies

My nearly 4 year old has a really bad cold so I thought the best remedy would be to give him some ginger! So ginger went into his lentil dal and ginger went into the delicious yummy sweet ginger stem cookies.

I adapted the recipe from Ina, The Barefoot Contessa and decided to warm things up with some mixed spice. The gentle heat of the spice along with the sweetness of the maple syrup makes for a delightful combination. Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. An awesome treat any day of the week but even more so when you’re unwell!

I hope you enjoy these, have a gorgeous day! Much love, D x

INGREDIENTS

2½ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
1 cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup sunflower/vegetable oil
¼ cup maple syrup/honey
1 large egg
1 cup crystallized ginger
Sugar for rolling cookies
Oil to roll

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°c and line 2 baking trays with some grease proof paper

Sift all the dry ingredients together and set aside

In a mixer on a medium speed, whizz the brown sugar, oil and maple syrup for 5 minutes

Add the egg and reduce the speed to low, mix for 1 minute

Slowly add the dry flour mixture into the mixer. This in turn should form a sticky soft pliable cookie dough. You may need to throw in a bit more flour, also stir in thr crystallized ginger

Grease the palm of your hands with a little oil, take a tbsp of cookie dough. Roll into a ball and then pat down to flatten into a 4-5 cm disk

Place in the oven for 13 minutes and remove to cool on a wiring rack

Repeat for the rest of the dough. The cookies will get crunchier as they cool down but will remain chewy inside

Raisin & Oat Cookies for Santa!

So it’s our two boys first proper Christmas, where the eldest now understands that Santa Claus is coming to deliver presents. He is so excited it’s brilliant! And we are ecstatic because he is! We went shopping for food and my nearly 3 year old was singing “We wish you a merry Christmas!” to everyone he saw walking down the shopping aisles! 🙂

So keeping up with festive tradition we have made some soft crumbly cookies for Santa and will be leaving them out for him on Christmas Eve! With a little something special with the cookies!

Some frothy milk, with a dusting of sweet cocoa x

We hope you have a wonderful and merry Christmas! Enjoy the festivities and fun with your friends and loved ones! Most of all relish the Food!

See you soon friends! Much love D x

INGREDIENTS

75g unsalted butter room temperature
70g dark brown muscovado sugar
1 free range egg
120g self raising flour
1 tsp golden/maple syrup
½ tbsp sunflower oil
60g juicy raisins
25g porridge/medium oats

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180°c/350°f. Lightly grease a baking sheet

• Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer for a few minutes on a slow speed

• Add in the egg and mix for 2 minutes

• Sift flour in and combine until all comes together, stir in the oil and then the syrup

• Fold in the oats and raisins

• Take half tablespoon dollops of the cookie dough and place on the baking sheet. Keep a little distance between the cookie mixture as they will spread once baked

I managed to get 10 medium to big sized cookies and baked 5 per sheet

• Bake for 10-15 minutes until nice and golden. The cookies will be soft so cool on the baking sheet

Sweet Eggnog Latte Bread

I really wanted to make up an extremely Christmassy recipe as it is my first year of blogging during this gorgeous time! The ingredients I came up with were pepper mint candy canes, but the young ones are too little for that amount of amazing sugar. I’ve already done the chocolatey things! And then it came to me EGGNOG!

Not just a simple eggnog recipe to drink but for it to be incorporated into a sweet recipe. Coffee and a dessert/breakfast bread came to mind and resulted in my eggnog latte bread! I started putting these ingredients together after writing up a recipe that I was about to attempt. Didn’t take long to prepare and was baked in half an hour! I was extremely happy with the result, as you see a moist and soft bread with a lingering taste of coffee and rich eggnog!

My very first own Christmas eggnog latte bread that I know will now become a family tradition to make every year!

INGREDIENTS

200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp mixed spice
1 cup packed soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup eggnog latte
50g butter melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Eggnog latte ingredients

150ml milk
1 egg yolk beaten
1½ tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp instant coffee granules

Method for eggnog latte

• In a small saucepan whisk the milk and caster sugar on a low to medium heat, add in the coffee granules and carry on stirring until all is melted

• Slowly pour in the egg yolk into the coffee mixture consistently stirring and still on a low heat. Once it starts to simmer take off the heat and set aside

• It will start thickening on its own due to the egg as it cools

METHOD

• Put all dry ingredients into a large bowl or electric mixer and mix until all combined

• Preheat the oven to 180°c/350°f, line and grease a rectangular loaf pan

• Pour in the melted butter into the eggnog latte which should be warm at this point

• Crack the eggs into the eggnog mixture and whisk until you end up with a glossy dark coffee looking sauce

• Gradually add the eggnog batter into the flour and other dry ingredients as you are mixing it. Beat for a few minutes

• The bread batter will be quite runny, this helps retain the moisture

• Place in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer once poked into the bread comes out clean

• Leave in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove and tranfer over to a cooling rack

• Dust the bread with lots of icing sugar serve with a warm drink and you may want to spread a little hazelnut chocolate spread! I know I did!