Recipe Alert…Peanut Butter Oattie cookies

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My Peanut Butter Oattie cookies are packed full of oats giving them a soft, chewy texture with whole peanuts adding pleasing crunchiness. Make sure you use salted peanuts as they add wonderful pockets of tangy saltiness contrasting the sweet oats.

Sweet, salty, chewy and incredibly moresish- you need to try these beauties! They’re proving incredibly  popular in my household at the moment- I’ve already lost count of the times I’ve been asked to make them. A fantastic treat to have in stock when the kids bundle home from school- a hard days “Rock; Paper; Scissors” having depleted their energy levels! Partnered with a glass of cold milk it’s indeed a marriage made in heaven. But it’s not just my children who can be found pilfering the cookie jar when these are about. My husband’s preference for the savory means he’s oftened to be found checking emails with cookie in hand!

I call them cookies as opposed to biscuits as a personal preference. For me biscuits represent something more uniform and structured- exact bites of crumbly sweetness. The cookie on the other hand is something more rustic. A ballsier rebel of the Baking World conforming less to the rules of appearence and plunging headfirst into the realm of flavours. Cookies don’t care how you think they look- they prefer to let their flavours make an impression. These cookies are not your small, danity bite size treats. They are large handfuls of tastiness- not meant to be nibbled on but greedily chomped at. Partnered with a glass of cold milk your satifaction is sure to be sealed with dripping, grinning milky moustache.

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Peanut Butter Oattie Cookies

Makes between 24-30 (depending on size)

175g Unsalted butter

225g Crunchy peanut butter

4 tablespoons Maple syrup

150g Caster sugar

150g Light brown sugar

2 large Eggs

1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

225g Plain flour

2 teaspoons Bicarb of soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

250g Jumbo porridge oats

100g Salted peanuts

 

Method

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and both of the sugars. Set to beat on medium speed. Beat for about 10 mins.
  • Whilst the butter mixing is beating you can get on the the other parts of the recipe. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
  • In a separate large bowl combine the flour, bicarb of soda, and salt.
  • Add the porridge oats and peanuts and mix throughly.
  • To the butter mixture add 1 egg and beat to evenly incorporate. Add the remaining egg and once again beat to evenly incorporate.
  • Remove the bowl from the mixer and slowly add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until just incorporated. Add in the remainder of the dry ingredients and once again mix until just combined. The batter will be quite stiff and lumpy. Don’t worry- this is exactly what you want.
  • Using two dessert spoons or an icecream scoop, place plarge balls (slightly larger than golf-ball shapes) onto the lined baking trays. Leave apx 2 inches between each cookie ball as they will spread whilst cooking they will spread. (I’m never too fussed about having them an even size as I think having them varying shapes and textures adds to their charm and  tastiness).
  • Place the cookie trays into the preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, until they spread and are golden brown.
  • Remove from the oven and allow the baked cookies to rest on the trays for about 8-10mins. They will still be a bit soft at this point so remove from the trays with a fish-slice or flat spatula and leave to cool fully on wire racks. During cooling they will frim up some more giving a soft cookie texture.
  • Once fully cooled, remove from the rack and enjoy.

 

In the meantime,

“Remember Mom’s the word- that’s Mr. Mom’s!”

There’s a Moose…loose…aboot this hoose

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I recently managed to get my hands on what I predict will be a hit of 2015- Moose Maple Butter. It’s a delicious blend of “organic butter, Grade A maple syrup and a dash of sea-salt”- all the brain child of the wonderful Farrah. As a fan of maple syrup I cannot recommend this highly enough. Not quite the sticky OTT maple hit that you get from syrup, the butter and sea-salt counter what could be a sweetness overload to give a rich, velvety and utterly moreish spread.

absolutely

I tried it first at the weekend, smeared over some hot crumpets. I was in heaven! Anything so simple that tastes that divine is a must have in my book. Sadly I was too overcome with awe (okay, okay I was too busy smearing and stuffing my face) to remember to take a photograph of the crumpets, transformed into shining amulets whafting of sweet maple-y goodness. But fear not! I have not completely abandoned my baking vocation in favourite of crumpets. In addition to its ease of use straight from the jar, Moose Maple Butter also would appear to be a wonderful addition to any bakers list of ingredients.

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Rather than go my usual route of cupcakes and soft bakes, I decided to try Moose Maple Butter out in cookies…but with a twist. Are you intrigued? If so carry on…

Maple Butter Cookies with prosciutto dust.

Maple Butter Cookies with prosciutto dust.

Maple Butter Cookies with prosciutto dust

These are my take on the all American breakfast favourite of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup. Crisp, mellow with a wonderful smoky saltiness from the prosciutto dust these are a great treat to snuggle down in front of the TV with. If made to a smaller size they also make a wonderfully different party bite.

Ingredients

185g Self-raising flour

185g Plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

125g Moose Maple Butter, softened to room temp

125g light brown sugar

3 slices prosciutto ham

 

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180 C (electric)/ 140 C (fan). Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
  • Cream together maple butter and sugar until light and fluffy. You need to do this for at least between 10- 12mins. The easiest way to check is to feel a little mixture between you thumb and forefinger. If it still feels a little grainy you need to mix some more. If it feels smooth- you’re good to go.
  • Add the egg, sift in the flours and salt and mix together until mixture comes together. At this point you may chill it in the fridge for about 20 mins if you prefer an easier to work with dough.
  • Turn onto lightly floured surface.
  • Roll mixture out to into walnut sized balls. Transfer to prepared tray.
  • Using a fork dipped in water, quickly press into the surface of the ball to flatten slightly and make grooves.
  • Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and transfer, using a fish slice or wide spatula, to a cooling rack.
  • Whilst the cookies are cooling, dry fry the prosciutto slices in a pan until they darken and become crisp.
  • Remove, leave to cool and further crisp up. When fully cooled, the ham will become quite crisp and hard.
  • Break the crisp ham slices into a mortar and grind with a pestle to a fine powder.
  • Sprinkle the prosciutto powder over the cooled cookies, allowing it to catch into the surface grooves.
  • Enjoy!

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If you’d like to know more about Farrah, Moose Maple Butter please do head over to the website at www.moosemaple.co.uk I’m sure there’s big things in store for the Moose!

In the meantime,

“Remember Mom’s the word- that’s Mr. Mom’s!”

 

Christmas Cake Parade

This December saw me at my busiest in the kitchen. In fact it’s safe to say that the festive month positively came and went in a flurry of flour and icing sugar. Word of Mr. Mom’s seems to have spread from which I am truly grateful to you all.

However, it wasn’t cupcakes that had me in a baking flurry- for some reason there was a run on the traditional Christmas cakes. Needless to say me being me I decided a little experimentation was in order. Not with the overall cake mix- that would be a travesty even I couldn’t bear! So I decided to push the envelope in other areas – increasing size; changing structure; and trying hand-painting to name a few.

Now I know the festive season has come and gone, and we’ve all had our fill of turkey, stuffing and figgy pudding (after all the Easter eggs are already on the shelves don’t you know?) but I couldn’t resist gathering the cakes together for a final look. Now that I don’t reek of brandy and dried fruit!

Holly & Ivy

“The Holly & The Ivy” traditional Christmas cake

Holly & Ivy detail 1Fondant “Holly” detail

Holly & Ivy detail 2

Fondant “Ivy Detail”

The Night before xmas“The Night before Christmas traditional Christmas cake

The North Pole

“The North Pole” Christmas cake

Painted Fondant

Hand-painted fondant detail

Gingerbread Hatbox

“Gingerbread Hatbox” tiered traditional Christmas cake

Gingerbread Stars

“Gingerbread Extravaganza” 12″ square Christmas cake

Large Holly & Ivy

“The Holly & The Ivy” 12″ square traditional Christmas cake

Winter Starfall

“Winter Starfall” traditional Christmas cake

Winter Bouquet cake

“Winter Bouquet” traditional Christmas cake

Winter Rose detail

Fondant “frosted rose” detail

Last December also saw me baking my Christmas cookies en masse. Crisp, spiced and with just a hint of orange these are as close to a secret family recipe as I have. I’ve lost track of the original recipe I used for these thanks the number of preferential additions, omissions and tweaks I’ve made along the way.  Having now baked these each Christmas since my husband and I have been together they really are woven into the fabric of our family. A sidebar annotated with dough flour fingerprints along with scribbled and smeared amends stands testament to their enduring popularity in our house. I will, in fact, confess to having moments of misty-eyed sentimentality, standing in wafts of clovey aroma as the cookies bake,  where I think of passing the recipe onto my children (one of which seems to have an affinity for baking whilst the other is wholly interested in the end product alone!) I think in total there was over 250 baked this year, and there’s still 2 batches of dough in the freezer- that is another experiment waiting to happen!

Cookies 3

Cut and ready to go

Cookies 4

About to go for the bake

Cookies 2

Spicey, zesty and warm – Christmas in a bite!

Cookies 1

I hope you’ve enjoyed this stroll down Santa Claus Lane? Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you all a (belated!) happy New Year and here’s to 2015!

In the meantime, “Remember Mom’s the word- that’s Mr. Mom’s!”