Sweet Vanilla Custard Muffins

So good, an easy, simple recipe. Minimal effort, maximum enjoyment.
Put on the kettle and get ready for a nice big muffin cuddle!!

Vanilla Custard Muffins

3oz spelt flour or the same of plain flour
3oz custard powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
6oz softened salted butter
5oz vanilla caster sugar (if you don’t have this just add a touch more vanilla paste)
3 large eggs
4 tbsp milk or double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
100g white chocolate chips
For the icing:
2 tbsp custard powder
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
about 4-5 tbap cream ( depending on the thickness you want)

Preheat the oven to 180’C and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases.
Place all the ingredients minus the chocolate chips into a large bowl or an electric mixer, and mix together until just combined. This is why you need really soft butter otherwise you will get small lumps in the mix!
In a small bowl mix the chocolate chips with 1 tbsp of flour and then fold through the muffin mix. (This step is really worth doing as it means that chips will be suspended in the batter rather than sinking to the bottom :))
Fill the case 2/3rds full and i like to refridgerate the mix for about 1/2 an hour before baking as it seems to make them rise evenly and just cook better, but you don’t have to do this.
Bake for 12-15 mins turing halfway. Take out of the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack for 30 mins before icing.
To make the icing mix the custard powder with the icing sugar and whisk in the cream a tbsp at a time until you have the thickness you want. add the vanilla and its ready.
Drizzle this over the muffins and away you go! Make sure you hide them, they might disappear otherwise 🙂

Sparkly Ginger Cookies

Loving these ‘sparkling’ginger cookies. Crunchy outer, gooey, spicy middles…YUM!!
I made these lovlies to compliment the whisky, white chocolate ice cream and to make it into a dessert, they went down pretty well.
You may be suprised at how much spice i’ve put into the dough, but you really need something other than ginger to make a rounder flavour. With hardly any fat either they are practically health food! 🙂
Perfect for anyone with a dairy problem- no butter!
I’ll stop trying to talk them up, as it’s not really needed, and give yo the recipe.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 cup rapeseed oil, or any vegetable oil
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup dark brown muscuvado sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup chopped crystalised ginger, mixed with 1 tbsp flour
About 1/4 cup granulated sugar (for the sparkle :))

Preheat the oven to 180’C and line 2 baking trays.
In a large bowl whisk together the oil, molasses and brown muscuvado sugar for about 5 mins. I used an electric mixer.
Add the egg and whic=sk for another min. Make sure you scrape down the sides, as theres always a bit at the bottom that never gets mixed in.
Mix in all the dry ingredients, i don’t bother sifting if im using the mixer as any lumps will dissipate, and mix to combine. Lastly add the ginger mixed with flour (this will keep the ginger pieces elevated in the mix evenly)
Roll into 16 even sized balls and roll in the granulated sugar. Place onto the baking tray about an 1inch apart and press down to flatten the cookies slightly.
Bake for 13 mins until crackly and firm to the touch, but still soft in the centre.
Put the kettle on and enjoy with a cuppa 🙂 xx

Messy Meringue Pie

This is a sort of mash up of a cheesecake and eton mess…yum!!
There are a few steps, but, like all my recipes, are they pretty simple. It’s definetly worth the effort and (don’t tell anyone i said this) but you can cheat and buy good quality meringues instead of making your own ;).
My messy meringue pie went down quite well with my family so hopefully you’ll give it a go and get some great feedback!!
As always enjoy and let me know how it goes 🙂

Messy Meringue Pie

For the meringue:
4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 tsp each of cornflour and rice vinegar

For the filling:
200g cream cheese
150g milk chocolate
150g dark chocolate
100ml sour cream
150ml double cream
zest 1/2 an orange
1tsp vanilla bean paste
pinch sea salt
1 packet Oreo biscuits

To make the meringue:
Preheat your oven to 140’C and line a baking tray.
Seperate foe eggs and put the yolks into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. (Unless your training to be a body builder i would advise using electic aid!) Make sure the bowl is incredibly clean, any sign of grease or yolk and the whites won’t whip up.
Whisk on high for a couple of mins until throthy, then add the sugar a tbsp at a time and whisk to stiff peaks. You should be able to tip the bowl over your head without getting a meringue hat 🙂
Lastly add the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla and fold through gently. Tip this mix into the tray in a single layer. Lower the heat of the oven to 120’C and cook on the middle shelf for 1 hour. When the hour is up turn the oven off but don’t open the door. Leave like this for at least 2 hours or overnight. Set aside for later.
To make the filling:
Using the same bowl (to save washing up) with the whisk attachment again, whisk the cream cheese on it’s own first, to prevent any small lumps. Add the cooled melted chocolate, zest of the orange, sour cream, double cream, vanilla and salt and whisk till thickened and smooth. Refridgerate for 2 hours.
To assemble:
Crush the oreo biscuits in a sandwich bag with a rolling pin but leave some bits chunky. Press this into a 7inch round glass dish. (It won’t be like a cheesecake base as it won’t compact together like that, but you don’t want it to. You want a textural, crunchy.pebbely base :))
Crush the meringue and mix most of it through the cold mousse mix and tumble this on the base spreading out very carefully trying not to disturb the base.
Sprinkle the rest of the meringue over the top and put in the fridge until needed!

Custard and White Chocolate Biscuits

I love to make cookies, traybakes or any other sweet treat for my friends and family- hopefully they like them too 🙂 The first time i made these particular ones was for the golden jubilee last year and one of my neighbours loved them so much he actually requested a batch a few days later, so i know they are a winner 🙂

So tonight i’m staying at my nans house and thought what to make this time??
Although my gramps proclaims not to have a sweet tooth, he doesn’t seem to mind munching his way through what i make 🙂 … but anyway this is what came to mind.

A really tasty, can’t stop eating the, cookie. A slightly different texture than a normal chocolate chipper because of the cornflour in the custard powder, but just as delicious!! Give it ago a see what you think.

Custard and white chocolate biscuits
140g soft salted butter
175g granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g spelt flour or the same amount of self raising flour (just skip the baking powder if you use that)
2 tsp baking powder
85g custard powder
100g white chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 170’c and line a 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg and continue to mix until combined.
Then sift in the flour, baking powder (if using) and the custard powder. The mix will start to get quite firm then and crumbly (see the picture above)
If you start to find it to hard to mix with a spoon use your hands to bring it together into a dough. Then add the white chocolate chunks.
Roll into golf ball sized balls and place onto a tray about 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly with your hand and bake for 12mins turning halfway. the will look pale but resist putting back into the oven as the will continue cooking on the tray. after a few mins transfer to a wire rack to cool completly, if you can!!
Enjoy. xxx

Blondies

A real family favorite, and a winner everytime! I make this often, it’s my brothers traybake of choice and you can see why!!
Gorgeously gooey on the inside (like a brownie) but crisp and crunchy on the outside (like a cookie) you really can’t go wrong.
Great for a quick teatime treat or tarted up with berries and clotted cream (maybe even a cheecky chocolate sauce) makes an amazing dessert.

Remember to take the blondie out before you think its ready- you really want a nice amount of goo in the middle 🙂

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Blondie
2 1/4 cups plain flour
250g softened salted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup muscuvado sugar (light or dark- dark gives a deeper, richer flavour. Better for adults!)
1 tsp (level) baking powder
1 tsp flaky sea salt or 1/2 tsp of table salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
white, dark and milk chocolate chunks – as many as physically possible!!

Preheat your oven to 170’c. Prepare a 8 by 8 inch square tin (or any that the mix will fit in!) To prepare your tin butter and line with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and 1 egg, beat again to incorporate. Then add the other egg (if the mixture looks like its seperating a bit DON’T PANIC, just add a bit of flour and it will come back to being a lovely mix.)
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in 2 stages into the mix and fold in- at this point you don’t want to overmix it as it will build up the gluten in the flour making the end result tough.
Put 1 tblsp of flour into the chocolate chunks and stir to coat each piece then add this to the mix and fold through again- don’t skip this step, coating the chocolate in flour suspends them in the mix and prevents them from sinking to the bottom during baking 🙂
Now its time to bake, your only 30 mins away from heaven!!
Bake in the middle shelf turning about 15mins into cooking. You will want to check the blondie after 25 mins, what your looking for is a crust to have formed ontop but underneath wants to be quite squiggy!! Leave to cool in the tray before cutting into squares, circles, triangles, whatever your heart desires!

Tips:
You can make these by hand or in a food mixer, but if you do it by hand make sure the butter is very soft. Ideally left out overnight.

I like to use bars of chocolate and cut them myself so i can cut them into sizable chucks, but you can use the bags of chunks or chips. Or try adding any of your favorite chocolate sweets- fudge, caramel, rolos, smarties, maltesers, anything goes!!!

HOpe you enjoy this
xxxx