Butter Crisp Ice Cream Sandwich with Roasted Rhubarb

Generally, I don't eat dessert during the week, however at the weekend I like to have something sweet to finish my meal.  I don't always have a lot of time to prepare and am often looking for a quick fix.  That's exactly how I came to make this Butter Crisp Ice Cream Sandwich with Roasted Rhubarb. 

The Rhubarb is slowly roasted in it's own juices with sugar in a low oven until it just starts to collapse, then left to cool.  The ice cream sandwich is simply two  Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps with  a Stem Ginger Ice cream  filling, served with the rhubarb compote.






I received a range of Jules Destrooper biscuits to review, I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Belgium, biscuits, Butter Crisps, chocolate, florentines, ice cream, Jules Destrooper, stem ginger

posted by Janice @ 20:34 3 Comments

Chocolate Crunchie Munchies

The way to my man's heart generally involves some kind of chocolate biscuit cake, although all cakes and biscuits are appreciated. These little Chocolate Crunchie Munchies are, not only a decadent and delicious morsel to munch on with your coffee, they are also a frugal make. Now that is bound to please your loved one!

I came home on Friday night and had a bit of a craving for something chocolatey, I knew there were no chocolates in the house but there was a bar of Rylands Dark Chocolate. I get this chocolate at the supermarket, it is about 89p for a 200g bar and tastes very much like Bournville chocolate. It's not in the league of specialist chocolate for eating, but it is excellent for baking and sweet making.

So I had the chocolate, now I needed to find something to mix with it. I rummaged around and found the end of a box of Special K, the flakes had gone a bit soft and chewy, but there is an easy way to rescue cereal, by putting it in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes. You need to use it up pretty quickly after that, but it crisps it up beautifully. As I was putting the oven on for supper anyway, this wasn't going to cost any more in fuel.

Special K being crisped up in the oven

 

I also found a bag with a few Amaretti biscuits in it and some sultanas.

Chocolate Crunchie Munchies

150g Dark Chocolate
50g White Chocolate
25g butter
225g cereal and/or crushed Amaretti biscuits
50g sultanas or small pieces of other dried fruit

1. Break up the chocolate and put it in a bowl with the butter, over a pan of hot water. Melt the chocolate being careful not to get any water into the chocolate or it will granulate.
2. Stir in the cereal crushed biscuits and sultanas and spoon into paper or silicone cases.

3. Put in the fridge for about 30-50 minutes.
4. Using a clean bowl, melt the white chocolate and put into a piping bag.
5. Drizzle the white chocolate over the Crunchie Munchies and return to the fridge for 10 minutes to set.

These little chocolate bites definitely hit the spot, you can adapt the recipe for any type of cereal or mixture of cereal and crushed biscuits, add nuts or seeds, smarties, M and Ms or anything that you like. Great for kids to make.

I received the heart shaped silicon cupcake cases in a lovely parcel from Dunelm Mill. I find that Dunelm Mill is a great place to get all your baking equipment, the prices are much cheaper than some of the specialist stores and there is a wide range of different products. I like to pick up items for food styling as well. As you can see I received a silicone madeleine mould, some large silicone cupcake cases, some silicone flowerpots and a Macroon Baking Set. The Heart Shaped Cupcake Cases are the first item I have had a chance to use but I am really excited about the Flower pots and the Macaroon Baking Set. I have made Macaroons before but they weren't very even and the set contains a baking mat which will keep my macaroons all the same size.

As this is a frugal recipe I'm entering it for Credit Crunch Munch the blog event run by Fuss Free Flavour and Fab Food 4 All. This month it is Elizabeth's Kitchen who is hosting the challenge.

I'm also adding this to Treat Petite, a NEW challenge from Cakey Boi and the Baking Explorer. This month the challenge is for any small cake or treat and The Baking Explorer is hosting.

I was sent these baking items by Dunelm Mill, I was not paid for this post and all my views are my own.

Labels: amaretti, biscuits, chocolate, cookies, Credit Crunch Munch, Crunch, Fab Food 4 All, Fuss Free Flavour, Mr Cakey Boi, Munch, The Baking Explorer, Treat Petite

posted by Janice @ 11:56 7 Comments

Chocolate Chunk Melting Moments

Melting Moments are a classic biscuit/cookie that are really simple to make and you generally find that you have everything you need to make them. They are supposed to be topped with a piece of cherry like the ones in the Tea Time Treats badge below, however I didn't have any glace cherries in my baking supplies, at first I thought I'd leave them plain, then decided that everything is better with a little chocolate added so added a chocolate chunk to each biscuit. If I'd thought about it before I might even have replace some of the flour with cocoa powder, next time!
The theme for this month's Tea Time Treats is Flapjacks, Oats and Traybakes
Tea Time Treats is a monthly blog event run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked
Melting Moments (makes 18-20)
75g (3oz) soft margarine
75g (3oz) caster sugar
half a beaten egg
a few drops vanilla extract
25g (1oz) rolled oats
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
a handful of rolled oats to coat
50g (2oz) dark chocolate, cut into chunks
1. Heat the oven to 160C, 325F, Gas 3.
2. Grease to baking sheets or cut baking parchment to fit
3. Beat together the margarine and sugar until creamy, then work in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Add the oats and flour and work until you have a soft dough.
5. Divide the mixture into about 20 pieces and roll into balls, you might find this easier if you slightly wet your hands.
6. Roll the cookie dough balls in rolled oats and place 5 cm (2in) apart on the baking sheets. Flatten each piece of dough and place a chunk of dark chocolate in the centre of each.
7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the biscuits are pale golden brown.
8. Cool on a wire rack

Labels: biscuits, chocolate, cookies, Melting Moments, oats, Tea Time Treats

posted by Janice @ 21:35 9 Comments

Chocolate Drops for Tea Time Treats

As the Treacle Bites were such a success, I thought I'd try one of the other recipes on the same page.  The Chocolate Drops were not in the same league as the Treacle Bites but they are also very good and incredibly easy to make.  They taste a bit like a chocolate Viennese finger or shortbread, very short in texture.  I'm not sure they were supposed to come out quite so lumpy as mine did, perhaps if I were more delicate in blobbing them onto the tray they might have looked better!  My answer to that was to melt about 100g of white chocolate and dip the dark Chocolate Drops into it so they were half coated, that certainly improved the look of them and, I have to say, added to the general pleasure of eating them.


Chocolate Drops (makes 18 -20)
100g.4oz softened butter
50g/2oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
90g/3 1/2 oz plain flour
15g/1/2oz cocoa powder

1. Cream butter with sugar and essence until light and fluffy.
2. Stir in flour sifted with cocoa
3. Drop 18 to 20 teaspoons of mixture, well apart, on to butter baking tray.
4. Bake just above centre of moderately hot oven (1190C/375F or Gas 5) for 17 minutes.
5. Leave on tray 1 or 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack.
6. Once the Chocolate Drops are completely cold, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water and dip each biscuit into the melted chocolate to half coat it.  Place on rack until the chocolate has set.
6. Store in airtight tin.

Printable Recipe

The theme for Tea Time Treats this month is 'Biscuits and Cookies' so I am entering these Chocolate Drops.  Tea Time Treats is organised and hosted alternately by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked.

Labels: biscuits, Chocolate Drops, cookies, Lavender and Lovage, Tea Time Treats, What Kate Baked

posted by Janice @ 12:00 7 Comments

A cup of coffee and a Treacle Bite!

It's time to 'Get Random Baby' or so Dom at Belleau Kitchen tells us.  Yes, it's time for another Random Recipe, this time using the Random Recipe Generator thingummydoodah, a technical term I'm sure.

It still required the dreaded counting of the cookery books as it grows every time I look, anyway my random choice was The Dairy Book of Home Cookery by Sonia Allison for the  Milk Marketing Board, originally published in 1968, this edition published in 1977.  The book belonged to my Mother-in-law and has retained it's place on my cookbook shelf as it has some good recipes in it.

And so to the opening of the book in a random fashion...it opened at a double page of biscuit recipes - RESULT!  There were many to choose from: Currant biscuits, Cherry biscuits, Spice or Cinnamon Biscuits, Chocolate Flake Biscuits, Jam Sandwich Biscuits and on and on... However,  I decided to go for Treacle Bites as I have a bit of a glut of rolled oats.


Treacle Bites (makes 24)

100g/4oz self-raising flour, sifted
75g/3oz rolled oats
25g/1oz desiccated coconut
100g/4oz butter
125g/5oz caster sugar
2 level tbsp treacle
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp milk

1. Combine flour with oats and coconut
2. Put butter, sugar and treacle into saucepan, very slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
3. Remove from heat. Add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in milk.

This is so much fun, it puffs up like puff candy!

4. Pour hot mixture on to dry ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.  Leave on one side for 30 minutes or until firm.
5. Break off 24 pieces of mixture and roll into marbles.

Rolling the biscuit mix was easier than I thought, not too sticky, they do spread a lot and I would probably make mine smaller next time as my 'marbles' were more like 'walnuts'!

 6. Transfer to buttered baking trays (leaving room between to allow for spreading), Bake in centre of moderate oven 180C for 15 minutes.
7. Leave on trays for 1 or 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack.  Store in an airtight tin when cold.

Treacle Bites Printable Recipe


The verdict: FANTASTIC!  I think these are some of the nicest biscuits/cookies I have ever made and I will be making them again, I would also try making them with golden syrup as I think that would work well too.  Now I must confess that I only had 15g of coconut so used some mixed seeds to replace it, so this is obviously also an adaptable recipe and if you don't like coconut, you know that you can replace it with small seeds, like sesame seeds.

And now for the well-deserved cup of coffee.  As my regular readers will know, I've reviewed quite a few different ground coffees recently.  Just before I went on holiday, I was sent some coffee by Aromo.  Aromo is a company run by three ordinary guys who simply live and love espresso and the mystic of coffee.  The main focus of their business is espresso coffee in single serving pods, but as I don't have a pod machine, I was sent the Aromo Bounce 100% Arabica ground coffee which retails at £4.00 for 250g.

We realy enjoyed this coffee, not being espresso fans we made our coffee in our filter machine and it was excellent, a really smooth rich blend at a very reasonable price and went very well with the Treacle Bites.  If the pods are anything like as good as this, then they are well worth trying.  Aromo coffee is available as ESE Coffee Pods   Senseo Compatible Coffee Pods   Nespresso Compatible Capsules

Labels: Aromo, Belleau Kitchen, biscuits, coffee, cookies, Random Recipes, The Dairy Book of Home Cookery

posted by Janice @ 21:23 18 Comments

Chicken Pot Pie and Plum & Raspberry Jelly

I was inspired by a recipe for a 'Lighter Chicken Pot Pie' on The Bite Me Kitchen Blog. I can't remember the last time I made I made Chicken Pot Pie, but I do remember the first time I had it. My dad worked for a US company and often went to California and Arizona on business. The first time he was able to take my Mum with him was in 1975 when I was 16, it had been arranged for me to go to Belgium to visit friends there for my holiday and my older sister was working during vacation from university. When Mum returned she brought with her an 'American Cookbook' and this was one of the recipes she made from it that we all loved and became a familty favourite.

I decided to make it yesterday, because of a mix up over whether my MIL needed any supper on Friday, I thought she didn't and apparently she did! So I used one of the chicken breasts that I had planned to have on Saturday, this left me with less chicken so I used the idea from The Bite Me Kitchen of bulking it up with lots of veg. I didn't however, go for a pastry topping, but the 'biscuits' as per the original recipe.

I have actually got my own copy of the book Mum brought back from the states (I bought it in 1979 when I first went to California), but it was jammed in behind the new kitchen units, so I just made a basic unsweetened scone recipe. OMG it was good though, the biscuits were soft and deliciously buttery (that would be the butter lol!) and the chicken and veg were sweet and tender in their luscious gravy.

When the kitchen is finished I'll dig out the book and post the recipe but it is really just chicken, onions, carrots and peas thickened with flour and sauced up with chicken stock, then the biscuit/scones on top.

I had some plums left over from last week's plum crumble and they needed used up. I poached them with some sugar and cinnamon then added a raspberry jelly (jello), topped up to 1 pint with orange juice and let it set. Served with Greek Yogurt (sorry Vegboxboy - no cream again!)

Labels: biscuits, Chicken, greek yogurt, jelly, Scones

posted by Janice @ 18:42 12 Comments

Two nations...

The Imperfect Housewife left a kind comment on my last blog post. We have a little thing going here about 'two nations divided by one language' lol!

So to the thorny problem of measurements and translations! You will see that I have a little gizmo on the side of my blog called Culiverter, this will help you to work out the quantities into cups.

Yes, your cookies are our biscuits.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say: A biscuit (pronounced /ˈbɪskɨt/) is a kind of small, flat-baked bread product that is usually made with a chemical leavener such as baking powder. The exact meaning varies markedly in different parts of the world, and the meanings in British English and American English are quite distinct. The origin of the word "biscuit" is from Latin via Middle French and means "cooked twice,"^[1] hence biscotti in Medieval Italian (similar to the German Zwieback, and still present in Dutch "beschuit"). In modern Italian usage the term biscotto is used to refer to any type of cookie, but not a savory cracker. Some of the original biscuits were British naval hard tack; such hard tack was made in the United States through the 19th century. Throughout most of the world, the term biscuit still means a hard, crisp, brittle bread, except in the United States and Canada, where it now denotes a softer bread product baked only once. The word 'biscuit' transliterated into Russian or Ukrainian has come to mean 'sponge cake'.

What you call biscuits we call scones and we eat them with butter and jam (jelly to you) or with cheese or if you are my husband with cheese and marmalade (orange jelly) eeeuch!

In England some people pronounce 'scones' like 'stones', but in Scotland we pronounce them like prawns - scawns.

How confused are you now, bet you wish you'd never asked.

Labels: biscuits, Scones, The Imperfect Housewife

posted by Janice @ 15:08 8 Comments