Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter has definitely been a food item that has grown on my over the past year. I never really liked it at all, in actual fact, I used to hate anything that tasted like nuts. However, since I found some in the kitchen cupboard and started experimenting with what it goes with, I figured that the spread literally goes with anything from apple slices to a piece of toast. I've also already done a few other blog posts based on peanut butter which are: Peanut Butter Granola Bars and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Blondies. 

I'm excited to share this recipe with you as these cookies almost remind me of the kind that you'd imagine to have with a glass of milk as a kid, or the kind that you'd leave out for Santa Claus on Christmas eve.

You can make this recipe flour free if you wrap the dough up and put it in the fridge over night. This will make the dough go harder because the sugar soaks up all the wet ingredients. However, if you can't be bothered to wait that long for some cookies, you can add in around 125 grams of flour.

Ingredients..

- 1 large egg

- 200g peanut butter

- 150g brown sugar

- 50g granulated sugar

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 125g flour

Let's do this!...
1) Preheat the oven to gas mark 4.
2) Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3) Using your hands, roll out 8 golf ball sized cookies and place them on a lined baking tray. 
4) Bake in the oven for 8 minutes, until they begin to turn golden brown and are firm on the edges. 
5) Allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minutes on the tray before removing. 

I hope you enjoyed this baking post, be sure to stay around for another next week! :) 

Becky x

Sugar and Spice Apple Cake

Since I'm really enjoying creating these baking posts on my relaxed Sundays, I thought I'd do yet another. This cake generally tasted like Christmas in a slice - I think I have a serious obsession with cinnamon at the moment!

So what you'll need for this scrummy apple cake is...
- 240g self raising flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 170g butter cubes, room temperature
- 245g brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 450g applesauce

The method...
1) Set the oven to gas mark 3 and line two cake tins.
2) Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and spices together in a bowl.
3) In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
4) Add the eggs to the butter and beat until combined.
5) Add the dry ingredients and applesauce in alterations to the wet mixture.
6) Divide the batter between the two tines and bake for 45-55 minutes.
7) Test that they're done by poking a cocktail stick into the cake, and if it comes back clean then the cake is done. Another way that you can test to see if it's cooked is by pressing your finger into the top, and if it bounces back then it's done.
8) Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 20 minutes and then remove.

I hope you enjoyed this autumnal recipe, stay around for more recipes in the future! :) 

Becky x

Sugar-Free Banana Bread

Banana bread has to be one of my favourite types of loaf cake. I love how moist the cake is and that you can add in pretty much anything you like such as chocolate, dried fruit or nuts. Instead of using sugar in this recipe, I replaced the ingredient with dates. Medjool dates are the best for baking, however I used the dried, stoned dates by Whitworths which worked fine as long as I had let them soak in some water for a while. Although the title of this post says that they're sugar-free, my dark chocolate chip loaf obviously isn't, however, my walnut version is. 

Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 175g ground almonds
- 150g self raising flour 
- 75g butter
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 medjool dates (72g stoned dates)
- 50g of optional dried fruit, nuts, chocolate etc.
- Handful of flaked almonds (Optional)

Method
1) Remove any stones and place dates in a bowl of water if they're hard.
2) Mix the ground almonds, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3) Add in any optional extras. 
4) Melt the butter in the oven on gas mark 4 in an oven proof dish or mug. 
5) Mash the dates to form a paste and add the bananas and mash together. 
6) Add the vanilla to the mashed banana and dates.
7) Remove the melted butter from the oven and add to the banana mixture. 
8) Pour the wet and dry mixture together and combine. 
9) Evenly distribute the banana bread batter between two loaf tins and sprinkle with a handful of flaked almonds or any other extra you wish (I used chopped walnuts on one and dark chocolate chips on the other).
10) Bake for 30-35 minutes. Poke with a sharp knife or cocktail stick and remove, if clean, the loafs are cooked. 
11) Remove from the tins and place on a cooling rack. 
12) Let the loafs cool before slicing. 

I hope you enjoyed this recipe post, stay around for another next Sunday! :) 

Becky x

Oat Cookies

I'm coming to you from my bed, full of cold, with a recipe which I came up with for oat cookies!

Oat foods definitely remind me of the cold autumn and winter weather, especially hot porridge on a freezing morning. This recipe is very versatile and you can add any flavourings or extras as you please. Have fun experimenting! 

What you'll need...

- 75g  self raising flour

- 75g porridge oats

- 75g brown sugar

-75g butter

- 1 tbsp honey

- 1 tbsp milk

To start with I set my oven to gas mark 4 and I weighed out the flour, sugar and oats and put them into a mixing bowl.

The next step involves weighing out your 75g of butter, honey and milk and melting it on a low heat in a saucepan.

The melted butter combination then goes into the dry mixture. 

Then combine this all together using a wooden spoon in your mixing bowl.

I found it much less messy using a spoon to shape the cookies before putting them onto a lined baking tray ready to be put in the preheated oven.

I only did this to half of the mixture and then added in some walnut pieces to the remaining mixture in the bowl and combined it together. 

I popped these in the oven for about 15 minutes because they were quite large. If you make them slightly smaller, they probably won't take as long and vise versa. I knew that these were done because they had become partly golden brown, hardened a little and expanded slightly.

I recommend leaving these to cool for a while so that they become set and less flimsy.

I hope you enjoyed this post, look out for more in the future! :) 

Becky x