Kitchen Sink Cookie Dough

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Whose noticed raw cookie dough popping back up in supermarkets? They taste AMAZING. 

Asda were the first to make the move way-back-when, me and a friend used to buy a packet each (250g I believe, fat as anything!), hide it in our cool grunger handbags and have a right old fiest in the cinema not caring about all the pasteurized egg going in our tums.  

So its 2013 now and Tescos stock it too, I reckon that prompted ol' Asda to jump back on the wagon. 

You’d think they were sponsoring this post. They’re not by the way, I’m just not that into milling my own flour and churning butter.

Who aint got a craving for cookie dough 24/7? Seriously. Take the egg out of any recipe, and voila. Delicy-mo! (Is that a word?)

Add just about anything you like:

Pretzels, wine gums, a little bit of pepper? 

Its kitchen sink cookie dough people! But there is one rule, seeing as its ‘kitchen sink’ you kinda absolutely 100% CANNOT skimp on the cornflakes. They are a must. Yumyum AND Crunchcrunch all at once. 

But you don’t have to use M&M’s. Or chocolate chips, although I did…but come on, its cookie dough!

The Recipe:

228g unsalted butter, softened 

150g white granulated sugar

165g soft light brown sugar 

290g white plain flour 

3 tbsp full fat milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 tsp sea salt 

2 packets chocolate chips

40g cornflakes

1 packet of any sweet you can think of!

The Method:

Cream the butter and sugars together until soft and light in colour. 

Add the flour, vanilla and salt and mix on low speed until combined. 

Pour in the milk, add more if the dough still appears too thick and sticky and if you want a 'dipping' consistency. 

Put in the chocolate, cornflakes and *sweets* and mix on low for 10 seconds until just combined. 

Using a spatula, combine the chocolate and cornflakes together until everything is even. 

Place in a bowl and enjoy for up to 3 days.

Alsooo, I have a birthday cake post coming up ! I will say no more, you will just have to come back and have a look at it. Just as soooon as I meet all my deadlines... Not long at all, then! 

Love Em xx

5 Ingredient Killer Key Lime Pie

With summer on our footstep all I wanna do is shove fruit in my gob and eat stuff with piles of cold, whipped cream thrown on top of it. It is really difficult though, to leave wintry desserts behind – I don’t know about you but I wont say no to a treacle pud whatever the weather. 

Here’s a little warning if you’re feeling in the mood for this pie – its expensive to make. BUT. Take a deep breath. Its worth the extra dough. 

Why? 

Well, quite frankly, why not? 

But also because it tastes so darn fresh and the textures mingle so darn well together that it almost tastes like a really expensive, professional pie prepared at the likes of I dunno, up-town Manhatten? That’s exactly why its worth the 15 pounds well spent on ingredients, its such an effortless pie as well – you can hardly taste the supposed richness from the 8 egg yolks too! 

So easy. SO worth it. SO not Maybelline.

Key Lime Pie

The Recipe:

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Book 1 Key Lime Pie 

For the pie crust
500g digestive biscuits or graham crackers
200g unsalted butter, melted
For the filling
800g condensed milk (2 tins)
8 egg yolks
Zest of 5 limes
Juice of 5 limes
For the topping
300ml double cream, whipped

Equipment
23cm deep pie dish

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Put all of the biscuits into a food processor and pulse with the blade setting unit fine crumbs form. Whilst the processor is still running, pour in the melted butter until crumbs appear sticky.

Pour the crumbs into a pie dish, with a tablespoon and your fingers press the crumbs into the sides and bottom of the dish. Bake for 10 minutes until darker in colour then leave to cool semi completely.

Preheat the oven to 150C. Zest and juice all of the limes and set aside.

In a large bowl or freestanding mixer with a whisk attachment, add the condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice and whisk until thickened - 1 minute.

Set aside a small amount of lime zest for sprinkling on top of the pie and add the rest into the filling until incorporated.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 20 minutes.

Leave to cool completely and in the mean time, whip the cream using a whisk. Layer the cream on top of the cooled pie and garnish with your reserved zest.

Pie is best served after 2 to 24 hours of 'settling' time in the fridge.

Have you ever made Key Lime Pie, was it as darn simple as this beaut?!

Can I hold your attention for a little longer??

I have gone and nominated myself for this years Cosmopolitan Best Food Blog Award! After some crazy miracle (thank you readers!!) I managed to get shortlisted last year (wdf?), I would be aaaaaaabsolutely thrilled if you could nominate me again! Please click here if you fancy it.

Or here.

Orrrrr here?

Perhaps here?

Am I sounding desperate yet? Tehehehe.

THANK YOU!!

Love Em xx

Violet Macaroons

Violet Cakes' Macaroons

Ever since that afternoon I spent at Violet Cakes however long ago I have been besotted, foolishly besotted, by a macaroon.

Everything else of that afternoon seems distant in my memory now, apart from that golden, crispy, syrupy rounded mound of baked coconut.

Before my near death experience involving sugar, my only knowledge of a macaroon (the real deal, not the contemporaneous meringue kind, I’m talking about the poor macaroon that was overshadowed by that) came from a packet of 4 overly chewy macaroons commonly found in my aunts, or even dating back 10 years ago, my late nan’s flat – where there would always almost certainly be a packet of chocolate dipped store bought macaroons. But hey, I knew no better, and I still ate the whole bloody packet.

Who says the coconut cant be desiccated?! 

The recipe for Violet’s delicate, perfectly proportioned macaroon can thankfully be found in Leon’s Baking &Pudding’s book – I will take this moment to mention how lucky we are that Ptak & the founder of Leon live in the same neighbourhood. Leon is one of the best food chains in England, but truthfully, I bought their book for the macaroon recipe but I’m sure I will be dipping myself into some more recipes such as the Lemon Bars fairly soon (as should the poor soul reading this). 

What really sets this recipe apart from the rest is the addition of honey; it makes the world of difference through extra subtle sweet flavours on top of that already coming from the caster sugar (trust me, it works). It also makes the macaroons extra sticky, so sticky you will need to keep your paper towels well away until its time to wipe the stickiness from your fingers - licking is totally acceptable btw. 

The Recipe:

Adapted from Leon Baking & Puddings Coconut Macaroons 

150g desiccated coconut 

150g caster sugar 

3 egg whites

3 heaped tbsp honey of your choice 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Makes 6 large macaroons 

Equipment

Deep, medium sized saucepan 

Ice cream scoop

The Method:

Place all the ingredients except vanilla into the saucepan and stir on medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the bottom of the pan leaves bubbles when scraped across - about 7 minutes. 

Take off heat and leave to cool completely, about 15 minutes in preheat oven to 180C. 

Place baking parchment over a baking tray. 

Scoop level amounts of mixture straight onto the baking tray making sure they are slightly spaced apart. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until sufficiently golden brown. 

Leave the macaroons to cool completely before removing from the parchment. 

The macaroons will lose their crispiness if stored in an airtight environment, so try to eat them on the day of baking! 

So, here's the big question that's playing on both our minds - do you plunge yours in chocolate or leave them raw?

Love Em xx 

No Fuss Pomegranate Juice

Spring has finally landed in dreary Britain, the forecast promises just 2 rainfalls per week as of now. Everyone’s mood is sufficiently uplifted and there are crazy cats in the shopping centre wearing only tshirts, linen “man” trousers and flip flops.

Something that fails to fit perfectly into this new bout of good old weather is the recent epidemic of measles – whoever said the jab should no longer be mandatory must...what were you thinking?! But anyway, a trip to the Turkish Food Centre to nurse my sister's flu (at 25 she is fully vaccinated from measles so I have no idea where I’m even going with this) obviously turned into me purchasing some really pointless items like honey (hate toast) and 2 for £1 pomegranates. I called mum over to cop a feel, they mostly felt soft and bruised so I was sceptical of this generous offer. She confirmed.

Luckily we managed to find 2 huge ruby gems hiding in the back baskets and immediately I started having these perverse fantasies where I was juicing these huge pomegranates with my £6 hand blender and putting 2 fingers up at the guy who decided to price Pom at £3.

Please excuse my weird fingers!

The Recipe:
Makes 1 serving of pomegranate juice. So, 1 pom = 1 cup of juice.

1 large pomegranate
1 ice block
Ice cold water

Special Equipment 
Old chopping board
Large knife
Cheap hand blender
Sieve
Measuring jug

Note: You never really know whether your pomegranates will turn out sour or sweet. So if they are sour, adding a teaspoon of sugar before blending the pips should do the trick. 

Pomegranate goodness

The Method:

On an old chopping board, cut the pomegranate in half (lengthways) using a sharp knife.

Cut the half segments in half so that you have quarter cuts of pom.

Either peel the skin off the segments with your hands, or if its too tough, gently peel back using a knife.

Remove the pips and put them into a deep measuring jug with a block of ice (along with sugar if your pips taste sour).

Pulp the pips down to a thick froth using a hand blender, some pips and bits of pip skin should still remain.

Place a sieve on top of your serving glass and gently pour the juice through the sieve and into the glass, making sure not to spill any if you're using a large sieve.

Add ice cold water to taste, the more water the more diluted the juice will be so try to add as little as possible.

So when I wrote this I didn't realise there would be a thunderstorm 3 days later... 

1 pomegranate = 1/2 cup pips

Love Em xx