Saturday 24 September 2016

Recipe Post 2016 No.27- Sparkly Star Biscuits!

Hey!

As of now, I'm officially going through my "breakthrough" of being a amateur baking blogger. I have over 3,000 views on my blog and still counting, and the feedback I've received has been delightful! As you can imagine... I am over the moon. But hey, a moon can't shine without stars!

To make what I call sparkly stars, you'll need:

215g of plain flour

1tsp of baking powder

pinch of salt

140g of unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

115g of soft light brown sugar

1tsp of ground cinnamon (if you really have a thing for spice, add 1 1/2tsp)

1 egg yolk

To decorate:

200g of icing sugar 

1tbsp of lemon juice

1/2-1 tbsp of water

Edible decorating balls

Equipment needed:

A sieve
Large mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Rolling Pin
Star cookie cutter
2 large baking trays lined with baking paper
Wire cooling rack
Small mixing bowl
Teaspoon

Method:

Begin by turning the oven on to 180 C/ 350 F/ Gas Mark 4. Sift the flour,baking powder and salt into a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Following from step 1, rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon and egg yolk.

With your hands, gather up the biscuit mixture to form a soft dough, Lightly, flour the work surface and rolling pin before rolling out the dough until it's around 5mm thick.

Manoeuvre your star cookie cutter in order to stamp out 20 biscuits, carefully placing 10 biscuits onto each baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, removing them from the oven and leaving the biscuits to cool a little. Eventually, move to a cooling wire rack. When your biscuits are in the oven, a aroma of warm cinnamon wafts around the kitchen, which I find comforting, reminding me of the coming of Autumn and Winter.

To create the icing for your biscuits, set the icing sugar in a small bowl. Add the lemon, stirring in the water a little at a time to produce "smooth" icing.

Spread this over each biscuit using the back of a teaspoon and decorate with edible decorating balls. And there you go!

Photographs:
 
 

  

 








Before this post ends... 

  
πŸ’  I really like Sia's new release- The Greatest. What song have you
heard which you particularly  like?





πŸ’  Zoella's blog seems to be getting better by the minute! 







πŸ’  Apple yogurt parfaits are a fall must










πŸ’  Check out my SnapChat account for updates on my baking, sneak peeks of my next blog posts, etc,etc. Name: @sweetreats



πŸ’  Closer by  Chainsmokers and Halsey is another one of my -repeatedly play tunes.
πŸ’  I will be posting my Blogger Recognition Award possibly next week.

πŸ’  Thank you SO much for your kind comments last week.

πŸ’  Happy Autumn!












#sweetreats xxx 







Saturday 10 September 2016

Recipe Post 2016 N0.26- Malted Chocolate Cookies!πŸͺπŸͺ

Hey!

As this is my week back to school and a few of ours too, I wanted to share a back-to-school post which really is a thank you to yourself for surviving through the first week of chaos, business and new changes.

In order to make these super tasty cookies(which I'm eating as I type):

• 160g of unsalted butter
• 125g of soft light brown sugar
• 50g of caster sugar
• 2 medium-sized eggs,beaten
• 175g of malted milk powder ( I'd used Horlicks but Ovaltine or any mother branded malted milk powder will do)
• 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• A pinch of salt (to bring out all the flavours)
• 150g of chocolate-coated honeycomb balls( I had used Maltesers), rouly crushed(you will need the pieces to stay chunky.

• 50g of good-quality milk chocolate, roughly chopped.

Method:
πŸͺ Firstly,pre heat the oven to 180°C/ fan 160°C/Gas Mark 4.
πŸͺLine 2 large baking trays with baking parchment or baking paper.
πŸͺBeat the butter and sugars together until light & fluffy; I preferred using a wooden spoon to beat by hand rather than a handheld/free-standing mixture as it saved me a couple more items to wash up and also, it's more effective as more air gets into the mix which is what you need. 

πŸͺ Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Fold in the flour, malted milk powder,bicarbonate of soda and salt to form a sticky but firm cookie dough!
πŸͺ Mix in the chocolates coated honeycomb ballsand chopped chocolate pieces until well dispersed.

πŸͺWith an ice cream scooper or tablespoon, spoon the mixture on to the baking sheet, ensuring the cookie batter balls are spaced 8cm apart. Wish them luck before  transferring into the oven to bake for 10-12 minutes until golden.

πŸͺ Allow cookies to set on the baking sheets for at least 5 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
The cookies can be kept in a airtight container for up to three days. But it doesn't really matter to me as my family will probably finish these in around a day!

Photography
Creamed butter and sugar
 .
After beating in the eggs
 
  
  





Before this post ends....

⌚Need advice on going back to school?  

Ace every class with one *big* back-to-school secret



πŸ’– Recently, I've been beginning to eat more healthily as I'm getting back into ballet training. Here are a few dishes I've been eating occasionally:


 




πŸ’– This time, I'm sharing with you my favourite book which at the moment is: "Geek Girl- Sunny
Side Up".

πŸ’– Dedicated specifically to fellow writers, there is this story-writing website called Storybird I had come across around a year ago which I love using as it allows you to read budding writers' stories, you can create your own,add illustrations, enter competitions and complete challenges and there's no specified age to use the website either-it's for everyone!









πŸ’– My favorite picture of the month is:


πŸ’–And last but not least, thank you SO much for all your positive comments last week- it was really enlightened my day!

Stay tuned for upcoming posts!

#sweetreats xx