Christmas Is Coming Part 2 - Triple Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

As promised another cranberry based cookie recipe. These cookies are packed full of Christmas flavour. Cinnamon - check. Cranberries - check. Chocolate - check. I made these last year and they were well received so decided to give them another go. The recipe is from the blog 'What Megan's Making' which I am a fan of. You can find the recipe here. It is an American recipe so you will need some cups for measuring out the ingredients. It also gave me an opportunity to try out my new cookbook stand that I picked up in TK Maxx this week.

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (approx. 140g) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/2 sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar (I used light brown soft sugar)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup oats
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
2 ounces white chocolate chopped (for drizzling)

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2) In a medium sized bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3) In a large bowl beat together the butter and both sugars until smooth. Then beat in the egg and vanilla.

4) Add the flour mixture and oats and stir until blended (This will take some time and is a good work out for your arms!)

5) Stir in the chocolate chips and the cranberries.

6) Drop about a tablespoon of the mixture onto your prepared sheets leaving spaces for the cookies to spread.

7) Bake until the edges are light brown for about 15 minutes.
8) Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9) Melt the chopped white chocolate in a bowl over a barely simmering pan of water. Then drizzle the melted white chocolate over the cookies.

10) Enjoy with your favourite festive drink :-)

Wholewheat Banana Nut Loaf

It has been a busy few weeks in the Little Birdie household. We moved three weeks ago and have been without the Internet until today. Upon moving in, we found the oven in our new house was possibly the worst oven in existence! A horrible, electric thing which took forever to cook anything and if it was cooked the bottom was burnt. Luckily Mr Birdie managed to find us a shiny new one for £50 (thanks to the wonders of Ebay!) My Dad visited us last weekend to help us tackle the garden (thanks Dad!) so I whipped up a banoffee pie last weekend but this cake is the first proper cake I have made in our new home. Hopefully many more baking adventures will follow.

I used to make this cake a lot a few years ago as it is super easy to make and a great way to use up ripe bananas. It doesn't look that amazing from the outside but it's what inside that counts. It is always well received (as proved today by the speed at which is disappeared in the staffroom at school) and it has never failed to produce a moist, banana-ery loaf that surely must be good for you as it contains fruit, nuts and wholemeal flour! The recipe is from Best Ever Baking by Carole Clements.

Ingredients:

115g butter (at room temperature)
115g caster sugar
2 eggs (at room temperature)
115g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
55g wholemeal flour
3 large ripe bananas
1tsp vanilla extract
55g walnuts (chopped)

Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 9 x 5 in loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
2) With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4) Sift the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon over the butter mixture and stir to blend.

5) Stir in the wholemeal flour.

6) With a fork, mash the banana to a purée, then stir into the mixture. Stir in the vanilla and nuts.

7) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread level.

8) Bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (50-60 minutes). Let the cake stand for 10 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Happy baking!
Dil :-)

Therapy Time - Oat and Raisin Cookies

It has been a stressful week in the Little Birdie kitchen and an even more stressful Saturday. Why does buying a house have to be such a horrendous experience? In an attempt to take my mind off things things I decided to make some cookies. Before Christmas I went on a cookie making splurge but haven't really made any since. This is a Hummingbird Bakery recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I have made them twice before for work colleagues and they have always been well received. Plus they've got raisins and oats in them so surely they must be healthy? I'm currently enjoying one with a mug of warm milk before bed! This recipe makes 20ish (depending on how big or small you like your cookies - I managed to make 21 with this batch).

Ingredients:

270g unsalted butter (room temperature)
160g caster sugar
160g soft dark brown sugar (I only had 50g of this so made the rest up with soft light brown sugar and they this worked as well)
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
380g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
110g rolled oats
220g raisins

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3 and line 4 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
2) Put the butter and sugars in a large bowl and mix (using an electric handwhisk - alternatively use a freestanding electric mixer) until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side with a rubber spatula. Add the vanilla extract and mix on the lowest speed until combined.

3) In a separate bowl sift the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Add the oats and mix well. Add to the butter mixture and beat until well mixed (I use a wooden spoon at this point). Stir in the raisins until evenly dispersed.

4) Arrange equal amounts of cookie dough on the lined baking trays making sure they are equally spaced apart to allow for spreading. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. They will firm up when taken out of the oven so if they still seem squishy don't worry too much. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

5) Enjoy...with the drink of your choice!