Smarties Cookies

My last two posts have been "egg white only", so I thought I should even the odds a bit and post a "yolk only" recipe. To be honest, I actually made these cookies on the same day as the Creme Egg mousse, so as not to waste the yolk! These cookies are soft, sweet and chewy - which provides a nice contract to the crunchy shells of the smarties. Needless to say, they are SUPER tasty.

The cookie recipe is based loosely on this one here. (I used it to figure out quantities of butter and sugar). I was still in birthday mode when I made these, hence the sprinkles. But let's be honest, who doesn't love sprinkles?

Ingredients:
75g margarine
125g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g self raising flour
1 tub smarties
15g chocolate chips
Sprinkles (if desired)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 18 minutes
Makes 12 cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 180 and line a baking sheet with grease proof paper.
2. Beat the margarine and sugar together until creamy, then add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and best until fluffy.
3. Add the flour, smarties and chocolate chips (and sprinkles!!) to the bowl, and mix together until a soft dough forms.
4. Roll the dough into 12 balls (around 30g each) and place these onto the prepared baking sheet. Make sure to leave plenty of space between the cookies, as they will spread!
5. Bake the cookies for 18 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven but leave to cool on the baking tray for another 5 minutes - the cookies will firm up as they cool. Once firm enough to move, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Taste one, just to make sure they are OK. Then taste another, just in case that first one was a fluke. ;-)

Happy Thoughts
x

Mini-Egg Cookie Bars

So, today is Good Friday, and whilst I'm not a religious person, I could not pass up the opportunity to take advantage of all of the seasonal chocolate goodies currently available, so I decided to bake up something Eastery. This is a very quick and easy recipe, and I imagine that if you had children, they'd like to play along.

Cookie bars are what happens when you start making a cookie dough at 6:30am, before realising that you'll be late for work if you baked the dough in batches,so you improvise. It's a really tasty, gooey, chewy wonderful improvisation.

I also learnt in baking these cookie bars that Cadbury Mini Eggs are virtually indestructible. I tried bashing them with a rolling pin - it barely dented them. I then put the into the blender -I ended up with a few chipped eggs and a bit of sugar shell. Finally,I crushed each egg with the flat of a knife,which seemed to do the trick!

Ingredients:
150g butter
300g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg, plus 1 yolk
300g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
100g Cadbury Mini Eggs
50g dark chocolate chunks
50g white chocolate chunks

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20-25 minutes
Makes 24 bars

1. Preheat the oven to 170.gas mark 3, and line two square baking tins with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the butter into a large microwavable bowl, and melt in the microwave.Stir in the sugar and vanilla,and set to one side to cool slightly. Beat in the egg and egg yolk.
3. Sift half of the flour and all of the baking soda into the bowl and beat in.
4. Crush your mini eggs into smaller pieces by any means possible, then tip the mini eggs and the chocolate chunks into your cookie dough and mix untill evenly distributed. 
5. Sift in the remaining flour and stir until the mixture all comes together.
6. Put half of the mixture in each baking tin, and flatten with the back of a spoon, being sure to push the dough into the corners. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown all over. If you press the cookie lightly with your finger, it should feel firm on top.
7. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, before transferring to a chopping board. Cut each square cookie into 12, then leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. Eat at least one whilst it's still warm. You can thank me later :-)

Happy Thoughts
x