Reeses Pieces Cookie Blondies

   I decided to do a little brownie experiment when baking some treats to take over to my brother's place for tea. Since my Reese's Pieces collection is forever growing I settled for a combination of peanut butter cookies and blondies layered together.

Carrot Cake Bundt

   This is another of my family recipes, this time for my Mum. Her favourite cake in bundt form with an orange drizzle. I took this over as my contribution to our family Sunday dinner and unsurprisingly none returned home with me!

Great British Food Magazine: Chocolate & Mackays Marmalade Devil's Food Cake

   I really enjoy Mackay's baking challenges and more so seeing what all the other food bloggers come up with. Although I've taken a strictly sweet approach to my recipes, other bloggers have come up with some fantastic ways of using jams and preserves in savoury dishes. Including a lemon and lime curd marinade for turkey from Lullabella's Kitchen.

Coffee & Nutella Doughnut Cake

Mini Marshmallow Cakes

   A very wet, cold and miserable week has just past. I figured that the only way to survive such a week was with marshmallows and cake.

Chocolate Chip Banana Loaf

   After having recently moved, with a lot of help from my family, I'm trying to show my thanks with food. Last week I invited my brother, Tom, and his fiancée, April, over for dinner.

   For this I made a typical meal that we would make in the days of dog sitting at my Mum's house. Fish baked with homemade pesto, mountains of veg and sweet potato mash. I also made some Vietnamese spring rolls to tuck into whilst waiting and served some of my work friend's amazing chicken samosas.

Cinnamon Buns

   One last Dan Lepard recipe for now. These have been bookmarked for some time, I just needed to wait for big enough baking trays in my new place to be able to make them.

   There's quite a few steps to these buns, but they're completely worth it.

Cinnamon buns
(Recipe from Dan Lepard)
     400ml milk
     seeds from 3 or 4 cardamom pods
     finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
     500g strong white flour, plus extra for shaping
     50g unsalted butter
     1 medium egg
     50g caster sugar
     1 sachet fast-action yeast
     1 1/2tsp salt
     oil for kneading

For the filling:
     3 Ryvita
     125g dark brown sugar
     2tsp ground cinnamon
     butter
     beaten egg, to finish

• Whisk the milk, cardamom, lemon zest and 50g flour in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Spoon into a mixing bowl and stir in the butter. Beat in the egg, sugar and yeast, followed by the remaining 450g of flour and salt. Continue to mix until a soft, very sticky dough forms. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.
• Lightly oil a worktop and knead the dough for about 10 seconds. Put back in the the bowl, cover and leave for 10 minutes. Repeat this twice more at 10 minute intervals, then leave for a further to prove.
• Line the base and sides of a large baking tray. Grind the Ryvita in a food processor until very fine, then mix in the sugar and cinnamon. Lightly flour the worktop and roll the dough out to just under 1cm thin. Dab a little butter over the dough, sprinkle the cinnamon mixture over it, roll it up and cut into 2-3cm slices. Lay these cut side up in the tin, cover and leave to prove again for 45 minutes. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 220 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until golden on top.

These are best eaten on the day of baking, although since I've bought some back to life with 10 seconds in the microwave.

Oreo Cheesecake Snowballs

      On a recent Pinterest spree I came across these no bake Oreo cheesecake truffles. With only three ingredients, these truffles, or snowballs as I'm going to call them, require very little effort. Perfect for a Christmas gift, stocking filler, or just to enjoy all to yourself!

   All you need to do is to put 200g Oreo cookies into a sandwich bag and crush with a rolling pin. (A nice little stress reliever after a long day!). Combine in a medium bowl with 100g cream cheese and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract until smooth. With a teaspoon, shape into 12 evenly sized balls and place on a baking tray. To chill the truffles, place in the fridge or freezer until firm and less sticky (approximately one hour in the freezer). Melt 200g of your choice of chocolate slowly over a pan of barely simmering water. Dunk each truffle in turn into the melted chocolate and remove any excess before placing back on the baking tray to set. Sprinkle with glitter, or drizzle another chocolate over the top to decorate and leave to set overnight. And that's it!

   You can experiment with the different variations of Oreos, surprise fillings and chocolate toppings. I'm now off to enjoy one (or two) with a cup of hot chocolate in my new reindeer mug!

Gingerbread Marshmallows

   There's not much that can beat homemade marshmallows in a hot chocolate. I'm sure someone else could give it a much more technical reasoning...but, they just seem to melt loads more. These plump pillows of gingerbread goodness have a strong warming spice on their own that can completely transform any hot chocolate.

   After spending many an hour on Pinterest the other evening, I found my self suffering with a bad case of American marshmallow envy. They always seem to have much more choice of supermarket kinds. Even very cute gingerbread men shaped ones! I gathered it would be a little unreasonable to jet off to The States just to purchase some, so I hunted for some recipes to try my very own!

Spiced gingerbread marshmallows
(Recipe from Annie Rigg's 'Sweet Things')

Ensure that you fully prepare and measure all ingredients before starting. It's also helpful to have all pans, bowls and tools out ready. Marshmallows aren't too technical to make but do involve some good timing and a pan of molten hot syrup. For this molten hot syrup, use a sugar thermometer. So easy to use, and very essential for sweet treats such as these.

     1tbsp icing sugar
     1tbsp cornflour
     6 leaves gelatine
     2 large egg whites
     185g golden caster sugar
     pinch of salt
     2tsp ground ginger
     1/2tsp ground cinnamon
     pinch of allspice
     pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
     100g soft light brown muscavado sugar
     2tbsp treacle
     2tbsp golden syrup

• Lightly grease a 20cm square baking tray. Line with baking paper and lightly grease again.
• In a small bowl, sift together the icing sugar and cornflour.
• Use a few teaspoons of the mix to dust the inside of the greased tray.
• Place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water and set aside.
• Place the egg whites in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, add 1tbsp of the caster sugar and the salt, but don't whisk.
• In a separate small bowl, mix together the spices.
• Heat the remaining caster sugar, light brown sugar, treacle and golden syrup in a medium saucepan with 150ml of water.
• Bring to the boil then leave to simmer until the syrup reaches 115 degrees on the sugar thermometer.
• Remove the pan from the heat and quickly turn the stand mixer on to whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak.
• Drain the softened gelatine leaves and stir until melted in the syrup mixture.
• Pour into the whipped egg whites, continuing to whisk on a low speed.
• Increase to a medium speed, add the spices and continue to whisk for a further 3-4 minutes.
• Pour into the prepared tin. Shake and give it a little wiggle to smooth out the top.
• Leave to cool before covering with cling film and leave for a further 4 hours, or overnight, to set.
• Once the marshmallows have set, turn out onto a work surface dusted with the remaining icing sugar and cornflour mix.
• Using a sharp, lightly oiled knife, cut into squares. 
• Toss all squares in the icing sugar to ensure all sides are coated.

Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

You can find my coconut marshmallow recipe here. 

And if you fancy following my boards on Pinterest, you may find them here.

As part of a blogger's Secret Santa, I sent some to the lovely Leona from Oh! Leona. Check out her blog to see her cute dog, Rex, who is fond of chocolate!

Sunshine Bars

   In attempt to have healthier snacks this week, I thought I'd give one of Gwyneth Paltrow's recipes a go, these sunshine bars. I'm not sure exactly what the difference between a flapjack, granola bar or sunshine bar are. But I like the sound of some sunshine.

   Of course, in true Sophie style, there are sure to be some unhealthy snacks this week as I'm on annual leave for 10 days. Well, I did finish half a packet of chocolate chip cookies whilst making these bars. I also have a special bake planned for some festivities this weekend...so keep your eyes peeled.

   My take on Gwynnie's sunshine bars are probably not as 'clean' seeing as I'm reluctant to fork out on ingredients like a jar of coconut oil that will most likely be finished in one use. But, am willing to give it a go if anyone can persuade me otherwise?

   I'm always on the look out for new recipe books, but have made a pact to myself to try out a few recipes before I buy. There seems to be more and more books out with not much substance and a whole load of bumf. For this reason, Dan Lepard's 'Short & Sweet: The Best of Home Baking' is on my Christmas list. From reviews, and flicking through it every time I walk into Waterstone's, it seems to be one of those books with just about everything you could want to ever bake.

   I found this recipe online and with a few of my own tweaks am impressed. So if anyone else has some links for other recipes of hers then I'd love to give them a go.

Sunshine Bars
(Adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's 'It's All Good', makes 8 generous bars)
     145g rolled oats
     75g margarine, melted
     25g oatbran
     small pinch of salt
     70ml maple syrup
     40g flaked almonds
     50g sultanas
     handful of chopped hazelnuts
     handful of cacao drops (raw chocolate buttons)
     2tbsp ginger preserve (optional)

• Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, ensuring that all oats, nuts and fruit are coated evenly.
• Pour into the prepared tin and pack down the mixture.
• Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
• Cut into bars whilst still warm and allow to cool fully before serving.

These bars are no where near as sweet as shop bought granola/flapjacks but I don't mind that.

Use any dried fruit or nuts depending on your preferences or on what you have lying about in the cupboard. I added in the ginger preserve, as since receiving a few jars from Mackays I've been putting it on practically everything for a little warmth and spice!