A New Idea

Oh woe is me! Exams are upon me! And I have no real inclination to cook as I don't have the time for my usual marathons, so I thought I'd try out a new idea for the blog, based on a theme that Kassiella does - weekly photos of what I've been up to, or more accurately, what I've been cooking. It's often old favourites that I turn to over revision time and I will link the recipes where they're ones I've already shared with you. This week has had ups and downs, I had a lovely afternoon with two good friends on Wednesday, to celebrate the end of a project Grace and I had been working on for uni and that we had all done our speaking exams for French. The rest of my week, well you're just going to have to look at the pictures!

Clockwise from top left

- Chocolate chip cookies to aid my revision
- Pork and peppers with noodles (from this recipe but I ran out of sesame seeds)
- Two new 500ml water bottles to encourage me to drink more water - as I've been drinking 3-4 of them each day I think it's working!
- Thai Green Curry - I promise that'll be my next recipe!
- The napkin from Filthy Cow in Manchester, which does seriously good burgers and has a really fun decor. I ate the burger and chips too fast to remember to take a photo
- Pizza Express dough balls from a lazy evening home alone
- Veal pasta from a lovely restaurant in Scarborough, where my family ate after watching the Tour de Yorkshire - I counted 55 police motor bikes!
- My new ladle from OTOTO, it's so cute and it stands up on its own!
Centre
- A delicious bowl of pea and pancetta risotto with a liberal serving of parmesan

What do you think of this new style of post? Is it a good idea or does it make you too hungry? And is that a good thing?

A Strange Time Of Night For Blog Posts

Right now, I should be asleep. In fact, I should think that most of you are asleep at the moment (unless you're my friends and family in Singapore, in which case, Mum, I promise not to stay up and blog when I have lectures!). I have this thought buzzing around in my head, stopping me from sleeping, which is how incredible it is that I've only just started this blog and yet my page stats on Blogger say that I have had 262 page views already, from all over the world, though I have just realised that my Thai visitor was probably actually my dad on one of his business trips there, but I don't think I know anyone in Switzerland and not 50 people in America, and they are reading my blog! Also, there are drunk people outside my window and I can't find my earplugs!

My mum sent the link to The Interesting Food Blog to some of her friends, and I hope they're enjoying reading my writing. A few of them sent her emails back saying well done, a fact that I was really touched by, and my godfather commented about Callebaut chocolates on the Thank You cookies post (I also can't believe I only just discovered they existed). One friend suggested that my next post was about savoury food to keep variety going. As I sat there, scratching my head as to why, for I had equal sweet/savoury posts published, I realised that she had probably been told over the years just how much I loved to bake and that I could spend hours, days even in some cases, making and decorating cakes. My previous blog was all about my baking and I realised very quickly that, although I love making complicated bakes, my everyday staples were brownies, cookies, chocolate cakes and Victoria sponges and that there are only so many times and ways that you can post about the latest batch of cookies that you made, identical to the last batch, and the one before that. Amanda, I promise not to let this blog get like that and to always strive to make unusual but do-able recipes and document them here. The other piece of advice given to me, again by Amanda, was that the most successful blogs drew you in and made you want to read the next instalment and I've been wondering how I can do that. All I can say for now is that I'll work on it.

One of the things I miss most about Singapore is the pork buns that I ate for snacks and ordered at Din Tai Fung on my many visits to their Singapore restaurants. Much to my eternal dismay there is no Din Tai Fung here in Manchester although there is the different, but equally good, Yang Sing (but they only serve Dim Sum before six) so I set out to make my own pork pau - it's complicated. My next post will be about this quest and the very long time it took to get there (hint, the whole process lasts 5 to 6 hours each time!!).

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I wish you a good night!

Thank You Cookies

My family have lived in Singapore for the past three years but are sadly in the throes of packing up to return to rainy old England. I've had some amazing holidays in South East Asia and taken cookery lessons in many different countries during my gap year, but more on those in later posts. This summer I spent a month and a half over there, visiting Indonesia and Hong Kong for a few weeks, as well as getting a bit too click happy with internet shopping in the process! Back in Manchester the parcels were piling up for me and a friend who was flat-sitting told me the concierges were a bit grumpy about holding all of my parcels (it was like christmas had come early when I got back and saw them!), so as a thank you I decided to bake them some cookies.

One of these packages contained 2.5kg of Callebaut chocolate chips to stop me from searching the city for Green and Blacks every time I baked a batch of brownies (baking is an expensive habit!). They cost me about £13 from Amazon, and I think I have the 54% (or a number around that). They're delicious, and sadly for my waistline, if I'm not careful, just the right size to snack on. When I added them to my cookies (recipe below) and then baked them the chocolate remained viscous even once they'd cooled, which makes them a bit messy to eat but worth it! If you don't want the mess then add a different chocolate - I used to make them with Smarties or M&Ms, as the original recipe (where from I do not remember) told me to do. As a treat, or for a more upmarket cookie, I replace the regular chocolate with white chocolate and fresh raspberries. I've been making these cookies for years and they've always met with approval from friends and family.  They're easy to make, both by hand or, as I always do, with a stand mixer (cue my new KitchenAid!) or electric hand mixer.

I've tried in the past to make this recipe healthier with golden/brown sugar and brown flour but it just doesn't work. If you forget to use self-raising flour and use plain instead then it's fine, I've done it before and it doesn't appear to noticeably affect the quality. As there aren't any eggs in the recipe it is both safe and delicious to eat the dough without cooking it first. If you don't want to cook it all at once then you can wrap it in cling film and freeze or refrigerate it for a few days and just leave it on the work surface to return to room temperature before you separate it into cookie sized balls.

Cookie Recipe

Oven at 170˚C

Makes as many as you want, but I normally make 18, using 2 trays with 9 cookies on each (original recipe said 12)

Don't forget to grease the baking trays

Ingredients

100g butter (soft if possible, can be blitzed in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time to warm)

100g caster sugar (EDIT it's actually light muscovado in the original recipe and it as tastes really good but if you like a bit of a crunch in your cookies then keep the caster sugar. I promise you both work equally well)

1tbsp golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

85g-120g chocolate, depends on how much you like

Method

Beat together the butter and caster sugar until combined, soft and fluffy and light in colour

Then add the golden syrup and incorporate

Half the flour gets added and mixed in

Chocolate next

And finally the rest of the flour joins the mix

If using something to do the job for you then just put everything in the bowl at the same time and turn the mixer on

Once it looks like cookie dough and there aren't any left over bits at the bottom (if there are then add a smidgen more golden syrup) stop mixing and make as many balls of cookie dough as you want.

Don't flatten them!

Place your raw cookies onto the greased trays ensuring that they have space to spread

Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes, then remove and leave them on the trays for 5 minutes or so until you can move them onto a cooling rack without them breaking apart (and if you do it too soon then what a shame, you'll just have to eat the broken ones!!!)

N.B. I'm not used to writing recipes so feel free to comment if you think it's too chatty or I'm missing information out etc.. Also, please let me know if the recipe works for you - I'd really love to hear your opinions.

What's your favourite cookie filling?