Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

One weekend in the summer we were going out for the day and I made us a picnic lunch. I wanted something sweet that would travel well and not be messy and decided to make cookies. My cookies are usually good but not brilliant - I have a tendency to over bake them, forgetting that cookies harden as they cool.

I had a look in a big recipe book I've got called the Good Housekeeping Baking Book and found a recipe for "the ultimate chocolate chip cookie". I was pretty dubious as I've heard that claim often, but these were absolutely amazing! Soft and just the right amount of chewy and they tasted delicious.

You need:
225g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
150g light brown sugar
1 and 1/2 tbsp. golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten
375g plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
350g milk chocolate, cut into chunks

Preheat oven to 200C. Mix the butter, sugars, golden syrup and vanilla, then beat in the eggs

Fold in the flour and bicarb of soda then the chocolate - I used mini Hershey's Kisses from America, which worked really well.

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a lined baking sheet, spaced well apart, and press down slightly

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown and still soft

Allow to cool on a wire rack. Delicious!

 

 

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

 

 

 

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Healthy Spaghetti Carbonara with Spiralized Vegetables

Spaghetti carbonara is an easy go-to dish if I want to make something midweek that's fast and doesn't involve a lot of meat, as I don't think it's good to have a big portion of red meat every day. Since I'm doing Sugar Free September I was trying to think of ideas. Simple (as opposed to complex) carbs are off the menu at the moment, as when your body breaks down pasta or potatoes it converts the starch to glucose. So doing Sugar Free September means no potatoes or pasta, though I have recently discovered gluten-free pasta which your body doesn't convert to glucose in the same way.

My fall-back when I haven't been eating pasta is spiralized vegetables, and I realised I'd never actually made a simple spaghetti carbonara using spiralized vegetables.

 

I decided to use spiralized butternut squash and courgette though you can experiment with any different veg that you like. Chop some bacon and fry in a large pan then add the spiralized veg with a little water and cook for a few minutes until the veg has softened and the water has largely evaporated.

Add either single cream, plain yogurt or even crème fraiche combined with a beaten egg and stir into the pan.

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese to serve.

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Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese

I love macaroni cheese and after eating a fairly disappointing one at the Caballo Lounge in Epsom, I decided to make my own. I had a magazine cutting from You magazine (the only thing I like about the Mail on Sunday!) which is from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It can also be found in the book Simply Nigella and you can read the recipe here.

Nigella says this is the best macaroni cheese she's ever eaten and while I might not quite go that far (the way they do it in America is brilliant if calorific), it really is very good- and a bit more healthy than it might be with the addition of some veg.

It uses a combination of feta cheese and Cheddar and the sweet potato gives the dish a lovely colour as well.

This is really easy to make, delicious and the leftovers are good on the second day. Something I will definitely be making again!

I'm sharing this with Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 - Week 37 - Sugar Free September Meals

I lost 2 pounds in the first week of #SugarFreeSeptember which is a good start, but given how hard I've ben trying* and how much I had to lose, I'm actually a bit disappointed it isn't more! Still, onwards and upwards and I'm going to keep trying, though I won't be home to cook healthy meals a couple of times this week, which for me makes things much harder.

For lunches this week I'm going to have tonnata chicken salad from the new Leon salad book and a roasted cauliflower salad from the same book if I have time to cook the cauli this week.

* What I've posted on the blog this month is generally what I ate or made for other people to eat in August

Monday
Tex Mex chicken tacos from this recipe (without the taco shell for me)

Tuesday- working late, usually don't get home til about 9 or 10 when I'm doing this particular project once a month so will get something from Tesco I can eat on the way home

Wednesday
At a colleague's leaving drinks, so I will make sure I have something healthy to eat beforehand

Thursday
meatballs (beef for him, turkey for me) with gluten-free spaghetti - I'm going to try introducing a bit of carbs but keep them gluten-free

Friday
burger and chips, with a Slimming World burger and a gluten-free bread roll for me (a bit of an end-of-the-week treat!)

Saturday lunch: for me as I'm doing sugar-free September (which includes gluten), homemade pizza with a cauliflower base (haven't tried this before and am a bit dubious!). He can have a proper (small) pizza
dinner: Tuscan chicken cacciatore

Sunday lunch: pub lunch? TBA
dinner: cheesy broccoli bake with Quorn sausages

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Tattered Lace Pink Shoe Card

This is a very girly card for someone who likes shoes and someone who likes pink! The simplicity of the design works because each element is actually very detailed. The shoe is a die-cut I made using a Tattered Lace die and my Sizzix Big Shot die cutter machine.

I mounted the shoe on another Tattered Lace die-cut, though I bought a selection of these already cut out from Ebay, which is always a good option if you don't want to invest in buying several dies. I stuck that onto a square white card blank and added a 'birthday wishes' sentiment which matched the colour scheme.

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Mary Berry Lavender Shortbread Biscuits

The area around where I live in Surrey is known for its lavender – in fact, it was once known as the lavender capital of the world. In the summer there are beautiful purple fields stretching into the distance. Apparently Yardley, a British toiletries brand that is known for lavender talcum powder, ties back to the area but eventually cheaper French lavender flooded the market and a lot of the lavender fields in Surrey were given over to housing estates.

 

Now, there are two main operators of the lavender fields, at least that I'm aware of. Mayfield Lavender is a commercial enterprise, but still a family-run farm; they are open every day through June, July and August where you can buy lavender plants and products. I've never been and it's not clear to me from their website whether you can actually pick your own lavender or not - I would assume so, but can't be sure!

The place that I've preferred to go to over the last couple of years is the non-profit allotment run by Carshalton Lavender. It's a volunteer-led project and they have an annual harvest one weekend a year (this year it was at the end of July) where you can go and pick your own lavender. They charge a reasonable £5 for a large bunch and £10 for a bucket-ful, and there are stands selling food and drinks, cakes and lavender products. That's me in the photo above picking lavender.

My husband and I went with some friends who live locally and I picked a large bunch of lavender, as I was planning to do various things with it from baking to making lavender bags (if I ever get around to using my sewing machine!).

It was my father-in-law's birthday not long after and he really likes shortbread, so I decided to make him some lavender shortbread with local lavender, and parcel a few pieces (as he isn't meant to be eating much sugar) up as a gift.

I used this Mary Berry recipe - lavender shortbread seems a very Mary Berry thing to make. It was very easy to make though you do need to factor in chilling time for the dough - I actually did mine overnight.

Here's the lavender that I picked:

I made up the dough and added the lavender

Make into a cylinder, roll in brown sugar, wrap in foil or parchment and chill in the fridge until firm.

Slice into rounds and bake in the oven

The finished product

 

 I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

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Restaurant review: Caballo Lounge, Epsom

Mostly when my husband and I go to the cinema we have dinner beforehand - we've found that if we drive to Epsom town centre after dinner to watch a film around 8pm, it's very hard to find anywhere to park! It also makes it more of an evening out if we have a meal as well, though as we don't tend to have a lot of time, we choose places that are near to the cinema.

This time we were walking down the street and I spotted a place I hadn't noticed before, though apparently they have been there a while! The Caballo Lounge is part of a chain but has quite an independent, quirky feel (obviously a result of meticulous research and planning across the chain!).

You'd be forgiven for thinking you had stepped into someone's living room (if their living room had a bar) - there are walls lined with books, sofas as well as tables and chairs, lampshades, board games - it looks like somewhere you could while away an afternoon with friends or children or go out for a drink in the evening.

Caballo Lounge offers everything from breakfasts to burgers, by way of paninis and pastries. They even have separate gluten-free and vegan menus which is something you don't see very often. As we went in the evening we wanted dinner; I love macaroni cheese so I ordered the mac and cheese (£8.95) which came with roasted butternut squash and tenderstem broccoli and garlic bread.

I was a bit disappointed that the cheese sauce was a bit thin and didn't have a strong flavour and that the whole dish didn't come together particularly well - it was basically some pasta, some chunks of butternut squash and a long piece of broccoli in a dish, as if each element had been cooked separately and then just put into the dish to serve. I would have preferred something baked in the oven with a crispy topping and a thicker cheese sauce. It was a shame as I really liked the place otherwise and I'm not sure whether I would go back or not.

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Tiramisu Cupcakes - coffee cakes for people who don't like coffee

These cupcakes taste just like the real thing - like you are eating tiramisu!

I made them for a family party with my in-laws; my mother-in-law and husband both love coffee cake but I really don't like it. I wondered if there was a way I could incorporate coffee into a cake so it would still be enjoyed by someone who doesn't like coffee; I've got a great recipe for chocolate cake that uses coffee as one of the ingredients to give depth of flavour but it doesn't actually taste of coffee at all. Then I remembered a dessert that I love, that uses coffee - tiramisu!

The Marks & Spencer recipe book 'Easy Cupcakes' has some really imaginative recipes - it's a very good little book that I've had for about five years but only used a handful of times. It has a recipe for tiramisu cupcakes - in true Caroline style, I didn't read the ingredients list properly and was half way through before I remembered I didn't have any masala or sweet sherry, but I did have crème de cacao and this worked perfectly. Here's what you need to do: the recipe says this makes 12 but I only got 8 (large) cupcakes out of it.

You need:
115g unsalted butter or baking spread like Stork
115g light brown sugar
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp coffee granules
25g icing sugar
4 tbsp. water
for the frosting:
225g mascarpone cheese
85g caster sugar
2 tbsp. marsala or sweet sherry, or in my case crème de cacao
cocoa for dusting

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder in a bowl until smooth and creamy and spoon into paper cup cases in a muffin tin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.

Place the coffee granules, icing sugar and water in a pan and heat gently until the coffee and icing sugar have dissolved. Boil for one minute then allow to cool.

Brush the coffee syrup over the top of each cupcake while the cupcakes are still warm. Then leave the cakes to cool.

For the frosting, beat the mascarpone, icing sugar and masala in a bowl and spread on top of the cupcakes. Sprinkle with a pinch of cocoa powder.

These cupcakes tasted gorgeous - just like eating tiramisu!

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Kat at the Baking Explorer and Stuart at Cakeyboi.

 

Charlotte at Charlotte's Lively Kitchen runs a blog challenge called the Food Calendar and there are several things happening this month that these cupcakes would be great for, including National Cupcake Week from Sept 12-18, International Coffee Day and the Macmillan Coffee Morning.

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Carrot Rice 'Risotto' with Chorizo

Did you know that you can do more with your spiralizer than just make vegetable spaghetti? You can also make rice - or a vegetable rice anyway!

After spiralizing vegetables into spaghetti-like strands you can give it a quick whizz in the food processor and turn it into little grains like rice. I don't think you could put the raw veg straight into a blender - that is, you couldn't as easily turn a raw carrot into carrot rice without spiralizing it first, and a cooked carrot would just turn it to mush. You could of course grate it rather than spiralize like I did with this cauliflower rice.

I've got the Inspiralized recipe book by Ali Maffucci and also get a lot of recipes from her blog, www.inspiralized.com. I found a recipe for a spicy seafood and chorizo paella using carrot 'rice' and diced bacon (I used chorizo);  It tasted absolutely delicious - I was really impressed, and since it's now Sugar Free September (for some people at least) I thought I'd share my adaptation of this recipe if anyone is looking for meal ideas.

To serve two, you need:
1 tbsp. oil or a few sprays of Fry Light
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
half an onion, diced
1 chorizo sausage, sliced
200g tin chopped tomatoes
2 carrots, peeled and spiralized then processed in  blender to turn them into rice
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 cod fillets, chopped into chunky pieces
12 large prawns
1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Fry the chorizo, garlic and onion in the oil

Spiralizing the carrot, then pulse in a blender until it turns into 'rice'

Add to the pan with the tinned tomatoes, chilli, paprika, and turmeric, the cod and the prawns

Then add the lemon juice and sprinkle with the parsley. The finished dish:

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Restaurant review: Dotty's Teahouse, Carshalton

Tea, cake, vintage crockery and crafts is right up my street – and now literally down the road as well. Dotty’s Teahouse recently opened in Carshalton in Surrey; I heard about it initially through a Facebook page and when I drove past, wanted to go there right away.
 

It took over a shop on the corner of the high street and the corner plot gives the perfect shop-front; there are chairs outside, bunting and shabby chic decorations in the windows. Inside, they sell crafts made by local people and have a room at the back where they offer craft workshops – one of which I did last week.

 

The first time, I went with my mother-in-law for lunch; we sat by the window and it didn’t take long to peruse the menu, which is quite short, at least in terms of food- there are 12 types of tea. In terms of savoury food, the only options are sandwiches – five flavours – or crumpets or toast. I actually love the sound of crumpets right now but we both decided to have sandwiches – tuna mayonnaise and egg mayonnaise.

 

The sandwiches were nice but very simple, from a mass-produced loaf of sliced white and a tin of tuna. I think doorstep bread – or bread from a bakery – would have given a better impression, even though they did taste very nice. They were served with a small salad and a few crisps, for £4.20.

 

We had been looking forward to trying the cake; they had a selection along the counter and I went for a slice of lemon and poppy seed while my mother-in-law had coffee cake. The cake was very good – definitely homemade, light and springy with a pleasant flavour. We were able to take our time over lunch and didn’t feel hurried; Dotty’s is a lovely place to visit and I've overheard several people saying they now go in there a lot for tea and cake.

 

I can also recommend the craft workshops, some of which are aimed at children and some at adults. I did a jewellery making class with Cara Fairbairn, who lives locally and has worked as a jewellery designer for several companies including Vivienne Westwood.

On this occasion we were working with beads, but it was more complicated than it sounds! We each made a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a necklace. Choosing beads and threading them onto the wire was the easy part; the more tricky bit is properly fixing on the clasp, or the part of the earring that goes through your ear - we had three different pairs of pliers for the different jobs.

I obviously didn't do a particularly good job as my bracelet fell apart as soon as I got it home and my the clasp on my necklace came off the next day, but Cara very kindly offered to fix them for me. It was really interesting learning the technique, and it's definitely something I would have a go at again.

The Dotty's staff waited on us throughout the evening, bringing copious amounts of tea and a lovely cream tea of a scone, cream and jam. They mentioned a sewing workshop coming up which I am going to look out for.

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