Chocolate gingerbread biscuits – a chocolatey twist on classic gingerbread biscuits; they make great cut-outs for Christmas!
I can’t believe that we are only a week away from Christmas; I still have so much work left to do and so many things that I want to bake and not enough time to do it all in! I made these chocolate gingerbread biscuits a while ago but haven’t had time to share them; seeing as we are so close to Christmas though I thought that I had better get them posted quick!…
Orange cinnamon butter biscuits – crisp, buttery, melt-in-the-mouth festive cookies that make great cut-outs for Christmas.
I’ve been having a lot of fun making and decorating Christmas biscuits this week. The decorating part is quite time consuming if you are trying to do it really neatly and you have a lot of biscuits to get through, but I find it quite relaxing and it is a nice way to while away a cold, wet afternoon….
Vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies – easy, soft, chewy cookies that are full of pumpkin spice flavour and totally vegan too.
This weekend I did something that I almost never do – I had the weekend off. No work, no social media, no thinking about the blog (well, that last one is a bit of a lie, it is pretty much impossible to stop thinking about it altogether). Instead we went out for dinner, went to a gig (Eluveitie, an awesome folk metal band, in case you were interested) and did some shopping. I even had time to get stuck in to Book Of Dust by Philip Pullman which I had been eagerly awaiting and am thoroughly enjoying thus far….
Witches’ finger cookies served with red velvet hot chocolate ‘blood’ make a spooktacular treat for Halloween!
This is my last Halloween post (for this year), I promise! These witches’ finger cookies are fun to make and very creepy looking, especially if you serve them with red velvet hot chocolate ‘blood’ for dipping them in!…
Gingerbread topped Christmas cake – Rich fruitcake covered with marzipan & royal icing, topped with gingerbread stars & snowflakes. Quick & easy to decorate.
You’ve probably all decorated your Christmas cakes (if you have one) already, what with it being Christmas eve eve today (already! How?!); but on the off chance that you haven’t yet gotten round to it, I thought I would share how I’ve chosen to decorate mine this year….
These chocolate dipped Lebkuchen are really easy to make, keep well and embody all the flavours of Christmas. Lebkuchen are a traditional German festive biscuit, similar to gingerbread but are softer and more cakey. They are made with honey, ground almonds and lots of spices and are topped with a sweet glaze as well as often being dipped in chocolate….
Viennese biscuits have to be one of my absolute favourites, they are incredibly delicate and buttery, with an extremely short texture which just melts in the mouth; and dipping them in chocolate just takes them to another level of deliciousness. They can be piped into pretty shapes, and on top of all that they are super quick and easy to make….
As promised in my last post, another rye recipe…I have actually made that marbled rye bread twice since posting it, it is so good! I’ve been eating marbled rye bread sandwiches for lunch every day and I haven’t had enough of it yet! I made something a little sweeter this time though – rye shortbread biscuits flavoured with masala chai. If you haven’t heard of masala chai before, it literally translates as mixed spice tea, and it is exactly that – black tea brewed with a blend of spices. The exact blend of spices used varies quite a lot so I went for a mixture of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and star anise, you can adapt the mixture depending on what spices you have/like; it is also common to use black pepper so add a pinch of that if you fancy as well. I also added some ground black tea leaves to my shortbread, this is entirely optional but seeing as chai means tea I figured there should be some in there!…
I’ve been feeling really old the last few days…I’ll be 29 later on this month, which yes, I know is not really very old at all. But I went out clubbing (to a rock club, of course) for the first time in over six months on Saturday, spent most of the night dancing and had a brilliant time; aaand it’s taken me four days to recover from it… I woke up the morning after and everything hurt! I like to think that I’m fairly fit, I walk at least six miles every day (dogs are brilliant for fitness), and do kettlebell/bodyweight workouts three times a week (how else do you think I get away with baking so much…?!); and yet a bit of dancing has completely done me in! Not to mention the bit where I didn’t get to bed till nearly 4am, that left me zombified for two days; I dread to think how awful I would have felt if I’d had a hangover as well……
I have been meaning for quite some time to try baking with tea, I mean I love to drink it, so why not eat it too? Admittedly I mostly just drink standard black tea (English Breakfast, with milk, no sugar, about four cups a day; in case you were interested.), and although I have a cupboard full of herbal teas I rarely stray away from my usual; although I am partial to the occasional cup of Earl Grey or chai. I tried to like green tea because I know it’s good for me, but I just couldn’t do it; even the flavoured ones had to be forced down… I do try and refrain from drinking caffeine after about 5pm though, so if I fancy a hot drink in the evening I go for camomile tea (or hot chocolate or hot spiced milk)….
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