Tiramisu Brownie Crinkle Cookies

How are we all doing this week? The hot weather we have welcomed this week has been both a pain and a pleasure. Pain because all I want to do is spend my time outside, out of my hot kitchen and apartment, which is of course not the right thing to do right now. Pleasure because I am lucky to have a small park next to my apartment that has remained very quiet so I have safely been able to enjoy my lunch breaks outside soaking in a little sun. I have also been very busy in the kitchen cooking up something special and I know its something you’re going to love. Why so confident? Well the original recipe these are based off are one of, if not the most, popular recipe I have ever published. Ive taken the brownie crinkle cookies, shrunk them, infused them with A LOT of coffee, and sandwiched them with a mascarpone, vanilla rich, rum laced cream. If you can’t tell, I love these so much.

The cookies are as easy to make as their bigger relatives and thankfully the filling is just as easy. All you need to do is whisk everything together until smooth. The most important thing to note is that the mascarpone is a tricky ingredient, this incredibly rich creamy Italian cheese has a tendency to want to split when whipped so it is very important that the cream and cheese are used cold straight from the fridge. This means the cream will whip up quickly before the cheese has a chance to split.

Over the last couple years since the original recipe was posted there has been a few people who’ve had issues with the recipe and whilst this has been a small handful I wanted to go over the recipe for a second to help those people succeed in the future. I have given a lot of detail in the recipe below but to double down, the timings are very important. If the chocolate and butter, once melted, are left to cool for too long the cookies can come out flat, if the chocolate mixture is too hot it can set the cookie dough too much meaning they won’t spread enough and can look dull and lacking any shine. When it comes to baking it is also very important all of the cookies are baked at the same time, otherwise as they sit at room temperature the batter will start to set and again they won’t spread and won’t have a nice shiny crust. Try and stick to the timings as closely as you can and you are sure to have the most delicious cookies going.

Tiramisu Brownie Crinkle Cookies
Makes 10 sandwich cookies

Brownie Cookies 
200g dark chocolate, 65-70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, diced
20g ground coffee (ground finely for espresso)
25ml espresso (or very strong coffee)
150g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Mascarpone Cream Filling
100g mascarpone, cold
165g double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
65g icing sugar
2 tbsp dark rum (or marsala or brandy), optional

Temperature and timing is very important with this recipe so before you start get all the ingredients for the cookies weighed out, two large baking trays lined with parchment paper and the oven preheated to 180C (160C fan) 350F.

Place the butter into a small saucepan and over medium heat cook until browned. The butter will melt and then splutter and then foam. When it foams the milk solids will have fallen to the bottom of the pan and will be a nutty brown. Immediately pour the butter into a bowl with the ground coffee. Set aside for 10 minutes before pouring in the espresso. Pour the coffee mixture through a very fine mesh sieve into a heat proof bowl. Press on the back of the coffee grounds to extract as much of the butter as you can. 

Place the bowl with the butter over a pan of simmering water. Add the chocolate the bowl and stir occasionally until fully melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside for the moment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or using an electric hand mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars for exactly 5 minutes, on medium/high speed. Meanwhile mix together the dry ingredients, sieving the cocoa powder if it has lots of lumps. Once the eggs have been mixing for exactly 5 minutes pour in the chocolate mixture and mix for about 30 seconds to combine. 

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix very briefly just until combined. Use your spatula to give one last mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly combined. Use a 2 tablespoon sized ice cream scoop to form the cookies. Make sure to leave plenty of space between each cookie as they will spread. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt before placing into the oven and baking for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will come out of the oven with that wonderful crinkled look and slightly domed. They will collapse a little as they cool but this helps form that perfect fudgy centre. The cookies will be very soft so allow them to cool on the baking trays for at least 20-30 minutes before removing from the tray to cool completely. 

These cookies will keep for 4-5 days but will be best within the first 3 days. 

Once the cookies are fully cooled make the filling. Simply add all of the ingredients to a mixer and whisk on low speed to break up the mascarpone a little then raise to medium speed and whisk until the mixture holds soft peaks. This whisking should take no more than 30 seconds. To get the idea texture it is imperative that the cream and mascarpone are cold, straight from the fridge. It’s also important to whisk only to the right texture. If you are going to pipe the filling its best to whisk to a slightly looser consistency, just beginning to form peaks, as it will thicken when its piped. If you’re using spoons to fill the cookies you can whisk until fully soft peaks. 

Using a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip, or a spoon, to pipe a round of cream onto half of the cookies, sandwiching together with a second cookie pressing gently together until the cream filling almost comes to the edges. 

Refrigerate the cookies for an hour to firm up the filling a little. If not serving immediately the cookies should be kept in a sealed container in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for a few minutes before serving. 

Milk Chocolate Tahini Buche de Noel

This Post is Sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

I can’t quite believe that 2019 and another decade is about to end. It has been a massively busy year and I have been working on a few exciting projects that I cannot wait to share with you in the new year. Can you also believe that next year marks 10 years since I first stepped foot in the Bake Off tent? Feels like it just happened. Feeling all the feels about that anniversary! But before I get stuck down memory lane I think we need one last recipe for the year, something very special for Christmas. 

For the final recipe in my Christmas baking series with Doves Farm Organic Flour I have created something very, very special. It uses one of the ingredients that was incredibly popular this year, something that I became a little bit of obsessed with, tahini. I have paired the sesame paste with chocolate to make a twist on a classic Christmas recipe, the Buche de Noel. The cake is a chocolate sponge using Doves Farm Organic Plain Flour and the filling is a milk chocolate and tahini whipped cream. To decorate, the cake is coated in a thin layer of milk chocolate ganache (which is there as an edible glue) and it is finally coated in little shards of sesame caramel, a great textural addition to a cake that is normally on the softer side. 

If you fancy something a little different for Christmas and you want to make this, I would suggest making the cream the day before and baking the cake and assembling on the day you want to serve. The cake needs to be rolled relatively soon after baking and once the cake is decorated the caramel will start pulling moisture out of the ganache and will eventually become sticky and weep.

Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour is available at Ocado, Sainsburys, Tesco

Milk Chocolate Tahini Buche de Noel
Serves 8

Chocolate Sponge Cake
3 large eggs, separated
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80g caster sugar, divided
50ml vegetable oil
50ml whole milk
30g Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour
30g cocoa powder

Tahini Milk Chocolate Whipped Cream
300ml double cream
75g tahini
75g milk chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Milk Chocolate Ganache
75g milk chocolate, finely chopped
60ml double cream

Sesame Caramel Shards
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp sesame seeds (I use a mix of black and white)

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and line the base a 9x13 baking tin with parchment paper. You can lightly grease the base of the pan to help the parchment stick but make sure the sides remain clean, we want the cake to cling to the sides of the tin as it bakes. 

Make the filling in advance as it needs at least 4 hours to chill before whipping. Place the cream, tahini, chocolate, salt and vanilla into a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring regularly, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour the cream into a small bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least four hours until cold. I generally make this day before I want to serve the cake, so there is less work on the day.

To make the cake place the egg yolks into one bowl and the egg whites and cream of tartar into another. Add half of the sugar to the yolks and using an electric mixer whisk for 3-4 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add in the oil and the milk and whisk briefly to combine. Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix to form a smooth batter. Set this bowl aside for the moment. Using an electric mixer (cleaned after making the cocoa batter) whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy then slowly sprinkle in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time whisking until the whites hold medium peaks. The final meringue wants to be stiff but still flexible, if the mixture becomes over whisked and dry it will be hard to fold into the cocoa mixture without losing volume.  

Add the meringue to the cocoa batter in three additions, gently folding until streak free. Once fully combined pour into the prepared tin, gently levelling out. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until the cake springs back to a light touch. Use a rounded blade knife to cut the cake away from the sides of the tin then immediately invert the cake onto a sheet of parchment. Whilst the cake is still warm gently peel the parchment from what is now the top of the cake.

For the filling remove the cream mixture from the fridge and in a large bowl whisk briefly until holding soft peaks. Spread the filling over the cake leaving the short edge near you clean. Carefully roll up the cake and then refrigerate for a couple hours before serving.

For the ganache filling place the cream and chocolate into a small saucepan and place over low heat and stir constantly until melted and smooth. Pour into a small bowl and set in the fridge aside until thickened but still spreadable. Spread the ganache over the outside of the cake, leaving the exposed ends clean, setting aside for the moment. 

To make the caramel shards place the sugar into a medium sized saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar has melted and caramelised turning the colour of an old rusty penny. Immediately pour the sugar onto a parchment lined baking tray and tilt the tray to spread into a thin layer. Before the sugar sets sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Set aside for 30 minutes before breaking up into small pieces and sticking to the cake. 

The cake is best served on the day it is made.

Chocolate Chip Molasses Ginger Cookies

Chocolate Chip Molasses Ginger Cookies
Makes 22 cookies

As I write this I am sat in my local coffee shop and its packed so im squished in at the last table by the door, shivering away as the biting cold constantly rushes in every time someone opens the door. It is well and truly winter and I my sixth bakers sense is telling me to break open the spices, the wintery bakes that provide comfort, a sense of warmth and make getting out from under the blanket worth it. Todays recipe is a special one, a mash up of two favourites and it is one of my recipes that appears in this years Bake From Scratch ‘Cookie Issue’. If you’ve read the magazine before you know I write for them regularly and am always thrilled when they ask for another feature from me. If your in the UK it is not currently on the shelves in shops here but you can subscribe and they’ll send out issue or you can also get a digital subscription should you want more Christmas cookies (my other recipes include a espresso chocolate sable sandwich cookie and a stamped lebkuchen)

Nothing says Christmas to me more than spiced bakes and very few recipes will win me over more than a soft gingerbread cookie. Add chocolate to that cookie and then they’ll be nothing else I want to eat this winter! Because the cookie uses both muscavado sugar and molasses there is already a hint of bitterness in the recipe so when choosing your chocolate you can go a little lower in cocoa content than you might usually for a chocolate chip cookie, even a milk chocolate would work wonderfully here.

The recipe was originally written for an American audience so you will see that it uses molasses as one of the ingredients, it gives it that charecteristic flavour, the depth, the treacly notes. Thankfully you can happily use black treacle as a replacement. I know you can buy molasses from some health food stores here in the UK now but to be honest I haven’t actually tried these yet so if you’re in the UK I would simply suggest sticking to black treacle.

Whilst these gingerbread cookies are already packing a lot of flavour there is always room for more, right? If you like your gingerbread cookies with as much ginger flavour as possible you can also add a few tablespoons of crystallised ginger to the batter, making them a triple ginger cookie. When it comes to texture these veer towards the softer side of gingerbread cookies but if you are one of those people that prefer a chewy gingerbread cookie you can use a 50/50 blend of plain and bread flours.

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cookies 
225g unsalted butter, room temperature
220g light brown muscavado sugar
160g molasses (black treacle will also work here)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 large eggs
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
525g plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
300g dark chocolate (55-60% cocoa solids) roughly chopped
100g demerara sugar, for rolling

In a large pan set over medium/high heat, melt the butter, sugar and molasses together until the butter has fully melted and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 30 minutes. Once cooled whisk in the eggs, mixing until fully combined. 

In a large bowl whisk together all of the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and mix together with a wooden spoon until almost fully combined. Add the chocolate and mix together until you have a uniform cookie dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough for 2 hours before baking.

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF (170ºC/340ºF Fan)

Roll the chilled cookie dough into ping pong ball sized pieces and coat the outside in demerara sugar. Place onto two sheet trays, lined with parchment, a couple inches apart. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until set and lightly browned around the edges, but still soft in the middle. Allow to cool on the sheet trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to three days.

Oatmeal Raisin Flapjack Bars with Caramelised White Chocolate

This post is sponsored Lyle’s Golden Syrup

I know 2019 isn’t over yet but its been an incredibly busy and exciting year and I am doing a little reflecting. I have been working on a few projects that I haven’t been able to talk about and very soon I get to share everything, I have something fun for Christmas and something for next year that I am so excited to reveal, it’s been driving me bonkers not sharing it with you guys. But as the year is coming to end and I am starting to slow down just a little, and it is really just a little, I am back in the kitchen testing recipes for you guys and first up is something I have been sitting on for a few months that I think will become a firm favourite, its definitely one of my new favourites.

I think oatmeal raisin cookies are the unsung hero of the cookie world. They’re nostalgic, easy to make, textural and they have great flavour. Yet they’re always outshined by their chocolate chip cousins. This recipe takes the idea of an oatmeal raisin cookie and transforms it for a modern day, something a little bit more special, a bit more extravagant and yes there's a little chocolate for good measure. For the chocolate I am using caramelised white chocolate. White chocolate is the obvious choice for an oatmeal raisin cookie and caramelising it just adds a whole bunch more flavour. The base is a mix of a flapjack/oatmeal raisin cookie which of course needs a little Lyle’s Golden Syrup for that classic taste and for that perfect chew plus it uses a touch of milk powder which really ups the classic oatmeal cookie flavour. If you’ve ever baked with Lyle’s Golden Syrup you know it normally comes in the iconic tin but to make baking a little easier they’ve just launched a new 700g squeeze bottle which is an easier format for baking, less mess and easier to use.

Oatmeal Bars
85g plain flour
100g rolled oats
1/4 tsp flaked sea salt
100g raisins
75g unsalted butter
2 tbsp Lyle’s Golden Syrup
100g light brown sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Caramelised White Chocolate Ganache
250g white chocolate, roughly chopped
100g double cream
1 tsp flaked sea salt

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan). Line an 20cm (8”) square tin with a strip of parchment or foil, with the excess hanging over the sides of the tin to make removing the bars easier later on.

To make the bars place the flour, oats, salt and raisins into a large bowl and mix together until everything is evenly mixed. Place the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar into a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring every now and then until everything is melted and smooth. Add the milk powder and whisk until combined. Take the pan off the heat and add in the baking soda and 1 tbsp water, stirring together for a minute until the mixture is a little foamy. Pour this mixture over the oat mixture and mix together until well combined. Whilst the oat mixture is still warm tip it into our prepared pan and press into a flat and even layer.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the flapjack is golden brown and just a little darker around the edges. Allow to cool in the pan whilst you make the caramelised topping.

Place the chocolate onto a rimmed baking tray (don't use a black or non-stick tray) and place into an oven preheated to 120C, 250F, Gas 1/2. Bake for 40-50 minutes. As it bakes remove every 15 minutes and stir thoroughly, making sure the chocolate is smooth and silky. Remove from the oven when the colour reminds you of dulce de leche. Pour the melted chocolate into small bowl and pour in the cream, stirring to combine. Pour the ganache over the cooled flapjack bars and spread into an even layer. Pop the bars into the fridge to allow the ganache to set. Before its fully set sprinkle the ganache with the sea salt. 

Cut into small bars and serve.