Banana Bread

 Banana Bread

 

This banana bread is so quick and easy to make and tastes amazing what more could you want!!

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas

6 tbsp vegetable Oil

1/2 cup of Sugar

1 egg

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain Flour

1 tsp Bicarb of soda

1 tsp Baking powder

1/4 tsp Salt

 

Method:

1. Grease a loaf tin. Using a fork, mash the bananas and then mix with the oil and sugar.

2. Stir in the egg, vanilla extract and salt.

3. Next stir in flour, bicarb of soda and baking powder.

4. Pour into greased loaf tin and bake in the oven at 180 c for 45 mins.

5. Leave to cool for 5 mins in the tin then turn out and leave to cool and enjoy!

Happy baking

Rusty

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Triple Chocolate Cookies

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I am not gonna lie but I think I have come to the conclusion that these are literally the best cookies ever and may even be the best treat to bake.  Firstly they are one of the easiest things to make, they take no time at all to bake and they are one of the gooiest, most chocolatey, melt in the mouth cookies ever! If that hasn't got you wanting to try these then I don't know what will. If you want them at their absolute gooiest (like weld your mouth together gooey) then 10 minutes after they come out of the oven is perfect as the chocolate is melted but it's not burning temperatures! However the best thing with these is that they only get better, even 4 or 5 days later they are still as soft and chewy. So if you like a crunchy small cookie then these are most definitely  not for you!!

Makes 10

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter

300g caster sugar

1 large egg

275g self raising flour

75g cocoa powder

Dash of milk (if needed)

Big bar or milk chocolate  (i use dairy milk)

Big bar of white chocolate (I use milky bar)

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees and line 3 baking trays with baking paper.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

3. Add in the egg and beat in.

4. Add in the flour and cocoa powder and beat in until all combined. If the dough is really stiff then add in a tiny bit of milk. But the key with these cookies is that the dough is quite stiff so they don't spread too far when baked creating the domed shape cookie. 

5. Open the chocolate and break it into the already marked pieces. I think the perfect amount is 4 pieces in each cookie. So I separate the chocolate into 10 piles of 4 pieces. I do 2 white pieces and 2 milk pieces per cookie however I had less white chocolate and so 2 of the cookies had 1 white and 3 milk pieces but it is entirely up to you how much you add. Also if you don't like white chocolate or you have a different favourite chocolate then you can easily add that instead.

6. Now the messy part. Using your hands separate the cookie dough into 10 equal parts (doesn't have to be completely even). Lay the 10 blobs out onto the prepared baking sheets.

7. Place 4 bits of chocolate onto each blob of cookie dough and push the pieces in and then roll into a  smooth ball. 

8. Spread the rolled chocolate balls evenly across the 3 baking sheets and then bake in the oven for 10  minutes 30 seconds. I have found this to be the perfect baking time for the cookie to spread out enough but leave a dome giving you the ultimate squidgy gooey cookie. Be warned they will look underdone when you take them out but if you leave them any longer they will go too hard once they firm up. 

9. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack but be carful as they will still be quite fragile. All that's left to do is eat one and enjoy.

Happy baking

Rusty

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Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

If you are a lover of mint chocolate then you are absolutely going to love these.  They have the perfect balance between dark chocolate and mint and the best thing is the hidden mint areo balls in the middle. They taste absolutely amazing and are worth every minute of effort in the kitchen. Enjoy....



Ingredients:

For the cupcakes
175g soft butter
175g caster sugar
3 medium free range eggs, beaten
125g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder

For the buttercream
250g unsalted butter, softened
500g icing sugar
1 packet of mint areo bubbles
30g cocoa powder

Another packet of mint areo bubbles
24 go in the middle of the cupcakes (2 in the each one)
12 for the decoration

One 12 hole muffin tin 

Method:

1. The night before you want to make these tip 1 packet of the areo balls out onto a baking tray or plate and put in the freezer over night.  You want the areo balls to be completely frozen so they don't melt too much when in the oven or they will become a gooey mess.

2.  Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees C and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin sized cupcakes cases.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

4. Slowly add the beaten eggs.

5. Then add the flour and cocoa and mix thoroughly until smooth.

6. Spoon a small amount of batter into each of the cases.



7. Remove the areo balls from the freezer (leave them in there right until the last minute) and place 2, side by side, into each of the cases on top of the batter. (Leave the remaining areo balls out of the freezer as 12 of them will be the decoration and if there are any left over you can add them to the buttercream or give yourself a treat whilst baking)

8. Lastly, cover the balls with the remaining batter and bake for 30 mins.

9. Remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

10. For the buttercream beat the butter for a good 5 mins until it is pale and creamy.  Then add the icing sugar and mix together until creamy and lump free.

11. Take about a third of the buttercream and place it in a separate bowl and put to one side.

12. Crush the bag of areo balls to a powdery texture with a few bigger bits if you want a little crunch throughout the buttercream and add this to the larger bowl of buttercream and mix thoroughly.

13. Add the cocoa powder the the smaller bowl of buttercream and mix thoroughly.

14. Once the cakes are cool, using a piping bag or a knife (which is what I used as I didn't have a piping bag to hand) put a layer of the mint buttercream onto each cupcake.

15. Then place a little splodge of the chocolate buttercream on top in the middle and flatten the edges down to blend it into the mint buttercream. Or if using a piping bag you could swirl the mint buttercream and swirl a bit of chocolate on top. It's entirely up to how you want them to look.

16. Finally place a mint areo ball on top of the chocolate buttercream and you are finished and ready to eat one!!

Enjoy

Rusty
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Yummy Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

These shortbread are the perfect crumbly texture and literally melt in your mouth.  They taste absolutely amazing and the chocolate chunks make the perfect addition. So if you fancy making a really tasty chocolate chunk shortbread then here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

~300g Plain flour
~100g Caster Sugar
~Pinch of salt
~250g Cold butter
~1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

 ~100g chocolate chunks
~ Cutter in any shape you want
~~~~~
Makes 15

Method:

1.  Pre heat oven to 150 degrees C.  Line 2 trays with baking parchment.

2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together until it becomes breadcrumbs and then just start to clump it together.

3.  Next add the chocolate chunks and mix in.
4.  Then bring the dough together into a ball.

5.  Knead briefly in the bowl, literally 30 seconds just to bring it together, the less the better in order to keep the shortbread short and crumbly.
6.  Dust a surface with plain flour, then using a rolling pin roll the dough out to roughly 1 cm thick.

7.  Then using any cutter of you choice cut out the shapes. Re roll out the dough until it is all used, but don't roll it out too many times because as before you want to keep the dough short.  Place the shortbread onto the prepared trays and then prick just the surface with a fork.  Then sprinkle a little bit of caster sugar onto each one.



8.  Place the shortbread in the oven for 25/30 mins, until just golden.

Enjoy

Rusty
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Mini Lemon Drizzle Loaves

Mini Lemon Drizzle Loaves

This is the perfect recipe for when you fancy a sweet treat but you don't want to spend hours in the kitchen.  They are the perfect balance between lemon and sweet and the sponge itself is very light, making these the perfect change from rich chocolate treats.  It's an all in one method so they are quick and easy to make and they taste amazing!!!

Makes 8-9

Ingredients: 

250g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
250g self-raising flour
Zest and juice of 3 lemons
Mini loaf cases

Method:

1. Heat oven to 160C fan.

2.  Lay out 9 (or as many as you get), mini loaf cases on a baking tray.

3.  Whisk the butter, 250g of the sugar, eggs, flour, zest of 2 lemons and juice from 1 lemon until just combined. Don't over whisk.

4.  Fill the cases two thirds full, then bake for 30-35 mins, until a skewer inserted comes out clean and they start to colour and look golden brown.

5.  Transfer the mini loaves to a cooling rack and leave them to cool for 10 mins.

6.  Next, with a skewer poke each mini loaf a few times, not all the way to the bottom but about 3/4 of the way.

7.  Then in a bowl pour the remaining lemon juice over the remaining 150g of sugar and zest of 1 lemon and stir to form a syrup, immediately spoon over the mini loaves.  Then leave to cool completely.

Happy Baking

Rusty

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