Happy Christmas! Love BBG X

Our dream biscuits!

Some bedtime reading in preparation for the feast which is in precisely 25 days...

Another amazing book has landed on the BBG desk! These might be trickier to make though...

Selina Snow Paints Cakes

Just a little apprecation post so that we swoon at artist Selina Snow's amazing paintings.  We have quite a few in our kitchen.  Arent they just good enough to eat?

check out http://www.selinasnow.com/

It's Brownie Time Again!!

So you might have worked out that one of BBG's favourites is... brownies. Yes ok we know they are easy-peasy but we LOVE trying out new recipes and comparing and constrasting...

So this is one from Bill Granger's book, Bill's Basics. They are quite fudgey and rich but not too bitter. We added the white choclate chunks to jazz them up a bit and worked out THE perfect way to bake them, see below...

INGREDIENTS

350g  caster sugar

60g plain plour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, lightly beaten
200g unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g dark chocolate, chopped

100g white chocolate, cut into chunks

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 22cm square baking tin with parchment paper
Line a 22cm square baking tin with parchment paper

Melt the dark chocolate gently over some simmering water

Stir together the sugar, flour and baking powder.
Mix in the eggs, butter and vanilla until well combined.
Pour into the baking tin and then place one white chocolate square every few cm's as shown:

This means they melt into the middle of each brownie square.

Bake for 40 minutes. They are best slightly under-done as they continue cooking when taken out fo the over and the fudgier the better!

Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cut into squares around where the white chocolate squares ahve melted under the surface. Eat immediately!

Toast Time

There's no denying that we beauty girls have rather a penchant for a couple of slices of toast in the morning.  After all, there's nothing better than a slice of freshly baked bread, a slick of butter (slightly salted naturally), and homemade lemon curd. We inherited this recipe from a Grazia Beauty Girl Mummy and it's really rather good. 

zest and juice of 3 lemons

225 g caster sugar

150 g butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

Put the zest, juice, sugar and butter into a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Stir until the butter and sugar have dissolved. Beat the eggs together lightly, and sieve into the lime mixture. Stir continuously, until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Pour into a clean bowl and leave to cool.

xoxo

Halloween wouldn't be right without caramel apples!

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!!!

SPOOKY...
Any excuse to bake a novelty cupcake! Happy Halloween Baking Beauties! XOXO

BBG's Yummy Crumble

BBG reckons this is the best crumble yet and it’s all down to sultanas and good old cinnamon! After making the crumble with more butter than usual (200 g this time) the crumble mixture browned nicely and a sprinkling of cinnamon over the top gave a delicious flavour. The combination of cooking apples and sultanas added to the richness of the dish without the need to add any sugar. Yay!

Cooking up some erm, cookies

Last night we got home after a hard days work.  It was cold, it was raining outside, we've just finished our book and the telly was looking dodgey so what could be better than a warm cookie and cup of earl grey.  We decided to be (a teeny tiny bit) wild and swapped 200g of dark choc for 50g of raisins, 50g of white choc, 5og of milk choc and 50 of the dark stuff.  Mmmm.  Oh and yes we made the plate too..When we were about 11! xoxo

It was actually this slightly posher recipe... Rice pudding all the same though!!

Some delicious rice pudding we made at the weekend. An old school fave!

Rice pudding and Aga's are a match made in food heaven. What could be better than standed over the Aga, wooden spoon in hand, stirring a big pan of yummy rice? Not much really... BBG's idea of heaven!

Plus it's so easy to make, a bit like a risotoo. Just lots of milk, a touch of sugar and butter and rice. De-lish!

Today we met master baker Dan Lepard at an Aveeno event, he taught us how to bake bread-yummmmmm.  His top tip? Swap 10% of your flour for oats, keeps bread and anything else you’re baking moist and instead of using flour on your hands and work surface whilst you knead the bread, spray sun flower or olive oil, it works so much better to keep your hands and work surface clean!  Follow Dan on twitter @dan_lepard  to learn all about his baking adventures!

Look what just landed on our desk!! Brightened our Monday up no end

Jus Rol part 2

So after the excitement of finding the Jus Rol DIY croissants, we couldn't wait to have them for breakfast on Saturday! We actually made them into pain au choclat by putting some dark chocolate inside each one. They were fun to make and so yummy!!

Weekend cooking in the countryside...

 

Autumnal weekends in the countryside can only mean - log fires, cosy pub lunches (we recently went to the newly opened Pig in Brockenhurst and can't recommend it enough!), a good roast and cooking of course! Be sure to check out BBG this week to see more of our baking creations....

Lorraine Pascale's cheese and bacon twists!

This weekend saw us recreate Lorraine Pascale's recipe for cheese and bacon twists and by did they go down a treat!! Easy-peasy and so delicious, we spotted them on her BBC cooking programme last week, which by the way we LOVE!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 x sheet of Jus Rol puff pastry

1 x packet of streaky bacon

1 x block of strong cheddar

1 x tablespoon Colman's mustard

Method:

1. Roll out sheet of pastry a floured work surface

2. Spread over a thin layer of mustard to cover the whole sheet

3. Grate over cheddar cheese to coat the sheet and grind some pepper over too if desired

4. Lay strips of bacon along the pastry sheet 0.5cm apart

5. Using a sharp knife, cut between each bacon slice and twirl each strip around until the bacon is covered in pastry and sealed in

6. Place each twizzle on a baking tray (use baking parchment too) spaced out

7. Bake in a hot oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden and well cooked.

8. Serve immediately!

They were gone in seconds!

Girls-I hope you've remembered to bake your cookies???!!! Xoxo