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Salted peanut cookies

Salted peanut cookies

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You know when you’re selling your house and you’re supposed to do lovely things like bake bread and have fresh flowers about? Well, I decided to bake cookies and now have become completely addicted to these salted peanut cookies. They’re super easy to make and make the house smell delicious too so it’s a total win/win. Charlie really helpfully pointed out that they look a bit like turds, but I’m hoping that the prospective buyers will see through the fact that they’re a bit challenged in the looks department and buy the house on the notion that they, too, can make delicious cookies in my lovely kitchen. Depending on how generous you are, you can make around 12 big fat squishy in the middle ones, or maybe 15-18 smaller ones.

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Coconut and chocolate chunk flapjacks

Coconut and chocolate chunk flapjacks

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I really fancied flapjacks yesterday. I’m not a huge breakfast person, but I do like a little something to nibble on with a cup of tea mid morning, and biscuits get a bit boring. You can easily make these vegan by substituting the butter, checking that the golden syrup you use is vegan (Lyle’s definitely is), and using vegan chocolate (did you know that Galaxy do vegan chocolate bars, including flavours like Caramel and Sea Salt and Smooth Orange? I’ve only ever seen it on Amazon though). Add coconut chips or dessiccated coconut, plus peanut butter, chopped nuts or dried fruit if you want. I love that as long as you keep the basic fat/sugar/oats ratio, you can personalise them as much as you want. If you want to go mad, substitute your favourite chocolate treat for the squares… Rolos or even slices of Mars Bar would be amazing!

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rich chocolate tart with raspberries and blueberries

A rich chocolate tart with berries for Sam’s birthday

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Wow, these lockdown birthdays are a joy and a heartache all at once aren’t they? All our birthdays are around this time of year, so poor old Sam had his 25th under the lockdown too. As is the family tradition, I asked him what dessert or cake he’d like for his birthday, and he came up with a right corker - a rich chocolate tart with berries - this made us chuckle as my Dad would always order these in restaurants and make some terrible off-key gag about it. This is actually the easiest dessert to whip up - a quick shortcrust pastry case, which you can buy if you want to, and some ganache that takes about two minutes to make. As the name suggests, it’s super rich and a teeny slice is all you need, so use a relatively small tart tin.

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Charlies chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate ganache

Charlie’s birthday chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate ganache

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We seem to have had all our birthdays in lockdown - first mine, then Charlie’s girlfriend Amy’s 21st, then Charlie’s 22nd (yes, I sang ‘twenny twooo oooh oooh’ to him all day) and Sam next week. As is the family tradition, the birthday person gets to choose whatever cake they want and I’ll always try my best to make it. This time, Charlie wanted me to recreate the fabulous rich chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate ganache that he always orders in Pizza Express. Thing is right now, there’s not a lot of point of making a huge cake as we can’t really share it around, so I altered my recipe a bit and just made one slightly smaller cake.The Pizza Express one is filled (generously), so I made a ton of ganache and split the cake in half to fill it, but you could just leave it whole and smother it in ganache.

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Peanut, coconut and chocolate chip flapjacks

Peanut, coconut and chocolate chip flapjacks

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If you’re looking for a sweet treat to bake at home right now (and if you’re lockdown parenting, something to keep the kids occupied for a while too), then look no further than these peanut, coconut and chocolate chip flapjacks. They weren’t supposed to have chocolate chips in, but Charlie requested them at the last minute, and they’re so good, I’ll definitely be adding them from now on. As long as you keep the basic fat/sugar/oat proportions in this recipe the same you can add or substitute ingredients for what you have handy at home. For the fat element, you can use butter, or coconut oil or plant based spread if you want to keep it vegan. Oh and if you don’t want to use peanut butter, just up the fat content to 175g.

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Spiced Christmas clementine cake

Spiced Christmas clementine cake

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I’ve been desperate to make one of these Scandi style Christmas cakes for ages. Quite a large portion of my Pinterest feed is given over to ‘naked’ cakes decorated with cute gingerbread shapes. Unfortunately, illness and other family stuff has got in the way. But now, finally, I’ve had a few days to myself and I’m pretty pleased with this spiced Christmas clementine cake. It’s skimmed with a smooth swiss meringue buttercream icing, which is a lovely, light alternative to normal buttercream, but that would be fine too, or you could use ganache (equal parts cream and chocolate - just warm the cream and stir in the chocolate, then whip to a light consistency). I tend to weigh the eggs and use the same amount of the other ingredients, which makes it even easier, too. Read more

Christmas gingerbread stars

Christmas gingerbread stars

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Happy Saturday! We made it to the weekend. I’ve been waking up stupidly early recently, but find it so peaceful lighting the fire and sitting by our lovely twinkly Christmas tree with a cup of tea and a book (Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles, obviously). If you’re still busy rushing around buying pressies, wrapping and organising, I sincerely entreat you to pause and take a little time for yourself amongst the madness. You know I love everything Scandi, and hygge is all about being cosy, warm, happy and contented. An afternoon of Christmas music and kitchen pottering is just what you need, and these Christmas gingerbread stars are the perfect Christmassy baking project/interlude of baking therapy.

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Frozen 2 Nordic Christmas shortbread

Disney’s Frozen 2 Nordic Christmas shortbread

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Remember my Nordic Christmas shortbread from last year (and my general obsession with Nordic Ware tins, actually)? Well, it gets better, because to celebrate the release of Disney’s Frozen 2, Nordic Ware has released a whole collection of bakeware! The collection includes character and movie icon-inspired designs in both cast and formed aluminium bakeware, cookie stamps, pancake pans, baking tools and more. So it seemed rude not to update my Christmas shortbread recipe in this fab new pan. The spicing is, of course, completely up to you. If you want to make truly Nordic Christmas shortbread, then add the cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. If you’d rather keep it plain, try a teaspoon of vanilla paste. Either way, this is my absolute favourite Christms shortbread recipe, either for pressing into tins or using for cut-out cookies as it keeps its shape really well when baking.

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Pastry jammy cakey things

Pastry jammy cakey things

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I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but when Mr Wiggo was little, his mum used to make these things called ‘pastry jammy cakey things’ - literally just what they sound like: jam tarts with a sponge topping. I’ve made them tons of times over the years, including a Christmassy clementine and cinnamon mince pie version, but the original is still his favourite, especially with orange in the pastry. You can make them with any jam you like, and flavour the sponge with anything: vanilla, more orange… you can even substitute a tablespoon or two of the flour with cocoa and make chocolate ones (which are fab with a marmalade centre).

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Spiced chocolate and pistachio biscotti

Spiced chocolate and pistachio biscotti

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I have a complicated relationship with biscotti. On the one hand, I love baking them (and eating them) but on the other hand, listening to people say ‘oh wow these biscotti are SO hard!’ makes me want to throw the aforementioned hard biscuits at their heads. Yes, biscotti are hard. That’s kind of the point. They’re twice baked and made to be dunked - traditionally in vin santo, but they’re also delicious dunked in coffee (or if you’re a coffee hater like me, hot chocolate, where they’re perfect for scooping out your melted marshmallows). I’ve made spiced chocolate and pistachio biscotti by adding a little Christmassy spice and using chocolate chunks and pistachio nuts, but feel free to keep it traditional with almonds, or add some dried fruit. Read more

Mocha meringue pie

Mocha meringue pie

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I love the cosy feeling of autumn weekends, when my laptop is packed away and I spend a while pottering around the house, sweeping the floors, tidying up, lighting candles and generally getting the house ready for the weekend. It’s even lovelier when you know you’re going to share that feeling with a good few of your very favourite people, and this weekend we had a get-together for my Mum’s birthday. I love feeding a crowd - I did a big pot of my veggie chilli and another of slow cooked beef chilli, a massive pan (in fact, way too much) of rice, and then just laid out bowls and a ton of accompaniments: sour cream, grated sharp cheddar, tortilla chips and pickled green jalapeno slices for everyone to help themselves. For dessert, I’d seen a pie with a chocolate layer, a vanilla custard layer and a coffee meringue top in a magazine I bought in Seattle, but I didn’t want to make pastry, so I changed it to a biscuit base, simplified a lot of the layers and voila - the mocha meringue pie was born.

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Vegan coconut and peanut butter flapjacks

Vegan coconut and peanut butter flapjacks

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So I chatted a while ago about the fact that Charlie in particular is keen to give up meat and dairy. I was just about to make flapjacks the other day when I realised that they obviously contain quite a bit of butter. Oops. Happily, I’m quite into cooking with coconut oil at the moment, so I tried that instead et voila - vegan coconut and peanut butter flapjacks were born - and oh my goodness, they’re SO good! The texture is the perfect amount of chewy and the peanut butter adds a lovely little sweet/salty flavour too. Regular readers will know that he’s also a dried fruit hater, but feel free to add some in if you like it - chopped dates would be amazing, ooh, or dried pineapple - it would be like a pina colada flapjack! Also, a quick word about peanut butter - I used the Meridian Crunchy Peanut Butter because it’s just 100% peanuts and doesn’t contain palm oil - but if you’re concerned obviously just check the label.

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Healthy (ish) maple pecan granola slice

Healthy (ish) maple pecan granola slice

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I’ve been fiddling around with this recipe for aaaages: I’ve made it into cookies, I’ve added dried fruit (and then taken it away again because Charlie moaned), twiddled with all the quantities, twiddled a bit more, and now finally I think I’m ready to share. I’ve called it healthy (ish) maple pecan granola slice because while it’s not in the least a ‘healthy’ recipe (is there even a healthy flapjack or granola slice that doesn’t taste like sawdust?) the butter and sugar have been kept to the absolute minimum that it takes to actually hold the thing together (I mean, 10g butter per person is pretty good - whizzing the oats helps with this too).

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How to make chocolate chip blondies

How to make chocolate chip blondies

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After the somewhat epic Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher that Charlie chose for his 21st, I was kind of hoping for something easy from Sam. He didn’t disappoint when he went for blondies (yes, it has actually taken me a complete month to get round to posting this recipe). What’s a blondie? Well, think of it as the soft, fudgy, butterscotchy little sister of the brownie. Instead of chocolate, the blondie gets its flavour from brown sugar and vanilla, resulting in squidgy, sweet, chewy bars that are perfect for sharing. I feel like there are two types of blondie recipe: cakey ones or squishy ones and this is definitely the squishy variety. Fancy baking these delicious, chewy, vanilla-scented beauties? Here’s how to make chocolate chip blondies - you won’t believe how easy it is.

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Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher

Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher - because you’re only 21 once

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My baby boy is 21. When I first started writing this blog, we’d just moved to Ireland and Charlie was eight. Honestly, it seems like a lifetime ago now. I’ve said before that I never really felt like I was a natural at all this motherhood lark, so I’m eternally thankful that they’ve both turned into the kind, funny, loving adults (eek!) they are today. It’s really lovely to see them live, love and flourish. Charlie’s in his second year of university now and happily settled with a lovely girlfriend, and although it’s true that you never stop worrying about them, by the time they get to this life stage, you have to sit back, relax and just hope that you’ve given them all the skills to make the right decisions in life. which is kind of a relief after the stress of those teenage years. And talking of decisions, if you’re a regular reader, or maybe if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll know about the Birthday Challenge. In this household, the birthday person gets to choose whatever cake they like, however obscure, and I promise to make it for them. Once upon a time, it was all about finding the most obscure recipes (think of it as the inspiration for the technical challenge on GBBO), but now, they just choose something yummy, which is fine by me. Charlie’s choice was for a ‘Nutella chocolate cheesecake with Ferrari Rockets on top’, and while he was heading back down the motorway ready to celebrate with all our friends and family, I got to work creating the perfect, silky smooth Nutella cheesecake with smashed Ferrero Rocher* on the top.

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Chocolate swirl buns

Chocolate swirl buns

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If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed that I’m currently obsessed with buns (the bready kind - stop that). It started with these Kanelbullar, and then on Saturday I wanted to make rolls for sausage sandwiches and started wondering what the same dough would be like with something savoury in it (yum, as it turns out - similar to using a brioche bun for a burger I guess). But then I had too much dough for just buns so my thoughts turned back to those delicious rolled up swirly bun things again. This time I added the butter and sugar filling and quite a lot of chopped up chocolate too. The results were seriously delicious, so at the risk of being boring I present the latest in my bun series: chocolate swirl buns.

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