Recipes for Sweet Talking Friday

Transcription

1 Recipes for Sweet Talking Friday Shortbread biscuits 280g (10oz) softened butter or margarine 110g (4oz) caster sugar 230g (8oz) plain flour 110g (4oz) rice flour 1 tsp vanilla essence A pinch of salt 1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy 2. Sift the flours and salt into the butter and sugar mixture and work with a wooden spoon until the mixture begins to form a dough. 3. Draw the mixture together with your hands and then turn out onto a board and knead gently to form a ball. 4. Wrap the ball in cling film and chill for an hour. 5. Roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to create the shape you want. 6. Place on a lined baking tray and cook in the oven at 160C/325F/gas 3 for 25 minutes until pale golden brown. 7. Decorate if you wish. You could even try to make the HemiHelp logo!

2 Vanilla Cupcakes 175g (6oz) self raising flour A pinch of salt 110g (4oz) butter at room temperature 110g (4oz) golden caster sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence Place all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, and using an electric hand whisk, whisk everything together for about a minute until you have a smooth well combined mixture. Using a spoon, drop an equal quantity of the mixture into 12 paper cases and sit the cases in the patty tin, giving it two or three light taps to settle the mixture. Bake near the top of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until well risen and golden. Leave to cool and then decorate any way you like! Brownies 250g butter 75g cocoa powder 4 eggs 500g granulated sugar 125g self raising flour 1.5 tsp vanilla essence 175g chopped walnuts 1. Melt the butter 2. Stir in the cocoa powder 3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar 4. Pour in the cocoa and butter mixture and mix. 5. Stir in the flour, vanilla and nuts 6. Pour the mixture into two lined, square 20cm tins 7. Cook at 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 for 25 to 30 minutes. 8. It's very important to leave the Brownies in the tin until they are completely cold.

3 Meringues Whisk 4 egg whites until stiff. Add 250g (8oz) of sugar very slowly - one desert spoon at a time until you have a stiff and glossy mixture. Then pipe into nest shapes onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and cook for one hour at 100C. After an hour, turn off the heat and allow the meringues to dry out in the oven. Fill with summer fruits and whipped cream. Special Chocolate Cake 175g (6oz) plain chocolate 175g (6oz) soft butter 175g (6oz) caster sugar 4 beaten egg yolks 4 egg whites 90g (3oz) ground almonds 90g (3oz) sifted plain flour Chocolate fudge icing 90g (3oz) sugar 45g (1½oz) butter or margarine 125g (4oz) plain chocolate 75ml (3fl.oz) evaporated milk Oven setting: 180C/350F Gas Mark 4 1. Break the chocolate into a bowl. Stand it over a pan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Stir well. 2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Beat the egg yolks, bit by bit. Stir in the chocolate and almonds. 3. Whisk the egg whites in a big bowl until they form soft peaks. Do not go on beating them or they will collapse. 4. Gently fold some egg white, then some flour into the cake mixture. Carry on until you have used them both up. Do not beat the mixture! 5. Grease two 20cm (8inch) sandwich tins. 6. Spread the mixture into the cake tins. Bake for 20 minutes, until the centres of the cakes feel springy.

4 7. Leave the cakes in the tins for a few minutes, then slip and knife round the sides and turn them into a wire rack. 8. While the cake bakes, make the icing. 9. Heat the evaporated milk and sugar in a pan. Stir and bring to the boil, then let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes. 10. Take the pan off the heat. Add the broken up chocolate and stir until it has melted. Do the same with the butter. 11. Pour the icing into a bowl. When cool, put it in the fridge. It thickens as it cools and becomes easier to spread. 12. When the cake and the icing are cool, spread half the icing on top of one cake. Put the other cake on top and spread the rest of the icing over it. 13. Decorate the cake as you please! Iced Spice Biscuits 250g (8oz) plain flour 125g (4oz) butter 125g (4oz) brown sugar 1 small beaten egg 2 teaspoons mixed spice pinch of salt For the icing 125g (4oz) icing sugar 1-2 tablespoons hot water Food colouring Oven setting: 190C/375F Gas Mark 5 Grease two baking trays. 1. Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg a bit at a time. 2. Sift in the flour, salt and spice. Mix everything well to make a ball of firm dough. 3. Sprinklee some flour on a table, the with a rolling pin roll the dough out until it is about 1 ½ cm (¼ inch) thick. 4. Cut the dough into shapes. Gather up any dough left other, roll it out again and cut out more shapes.

5 5. Put the biscuits on the trays. Bake them on a high shelf in the oven for about 15 minutes, until light brown. 6. Put the biscuits on a wire rack to cool. Mix the icing sugar and hot water together in a bowl until smooth. 7. Spoon the icing into to two or three different cups and add a drop of different food colouring in each one. Leave some white. 8. When the biscuits are cool, spoon half a teaspoon of icing onto each one and spread it evenly. 9. Before the icing sets, decorate the biscuits with silver balls or anything else you like! (The last two recipes are from The Usborne First Cookbook, Angela Wilkes and Stephen Cartwright. The others are tried and tested favourites! )