'Made With Love by Betty' Gingerbread Biscuits

Gosh and golly I have MISSED my kitchen!

What makes it even more the sweeter is that my new flatmate is an OCD cleaner and has rearranged all my cupboards so that they make sense! Thanking you kindly new flatmate.

Dare I say it...the weather is turning and I need to cram in as much comfort food as possible before I set sail again to scorching countries. I'm going to be missing winter and cold Christmas' again which means missing out on my favourite belly warming foods. You can't get much more wintery than cinnamon & ginger, so here are my 'slightly early' Gingerbread men & heart biscuits made with love :)

(I have been waiting months to use my new rolling pin which, as you can see is the bee's knees! Thank you Scout and Megan <3 You can find these babies on Not On The High Street )

What You'll Need //

220g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
75g butter/margarine
75g soft brown sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup

Makes approx 22 depending on cutter size

Oh...these 3 got stuck together so I had to eat them all in one go...

What to do //

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C (fan) and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon into a mixing bowl.

In a saucepan on a low heat, melt the butter, sugar and syrup until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour the heated liquid into the mixing bowl and mix well to form a soft dough.

Lightly dust a clean surface with flour, knead dough lightly and roll out to about 3mm thick.

Cut into shapes and and bake in oven for 12 minutes.

Tip: Don't be fooled if they don't feel hard when they come out of the oven. Leave them to cool and they will harden. (Mine were a little over done so I've adjusted the baking time in this recipe accordingly!)

Happy biscuiting!

Don't forget your cuppa for dunking :)

Betty x

Ps. Are we friends on Instagram? Pop over and say hi!

11 Mouth Watering Recipe Blogs

It's been a summer stuffed with sunshine, Shakespeare and singing, meaning my work / life balance has been thrown slightly out of kilter and I've neglected my lovely blog :( But I've missed it too much and will be making a vow to blog my socks off even whilst I'm away from home. 

In between touring the stunning countryside of Kent performing in castle grounds, Himilayan gardens and even vineyards(!) I found so much happiness in recipe stalking and drooling over what could be if I were back in my own kitchen. 

My stalking generally occurs around midnight, just to torment my tummy and leave me dreaming of quadruple chocolate fudge cookies or rustic home baked breads topped with 5 types of parmesan and rosemary….mmm bread. 

So I thought, whilst I can't blog about my own recipes, I'll share other peoples :)

Ergo - here's my tantalising top 11 recipe blogs of August. 

MY NAME IS YEH

Molly should be given awards for her food photography…it's out of this world and her recipes are seriously something special.

Personal fave : Mini Pumpkin Loaf Cakes

A DASH OF GINGER
I hand on heart would like to make and devour every single recipe that Kirsty posts. They all look so heavenly.
Personal Fave : Mexican Chilli Quinoa Bake

HOMEMADE HOOPLAH
Cookie Dough Dip… need I say more.

THE TEA BEE

Now, I have extreme life envy of Carli who owns the gorgeous Olde Young Tea House in Teeside and her instagram will no doubt leave you drooling for hours. Those cakes….jeeeeez.

Personal Fave : Crunchy Carrot Cake

MINIMALIST BAKER
If you're a fan of all things deliciously veggie/vegan then Dana & John are your peeps. I would turn for them. Their recipes always look fresh and full of flavour.
Personal Fave : Easy Vegan Falafel  mmm falafel

GIMME SOME OVEN

I need everything on Ali's blog in my mouth….stat. The colours and creativity of her food make you salivate before you can say spicy cucumber margarita. 

Personal Fave : Chimichurri Shrimp or French Onion Dip OH I can't decide! 

THE LONDONER

The most cooked recipe in my kitchen is Rosie's Chicken Noodle Soup. I must have made it at least 50 times. Perfect healthy comfort food. And then to counteract your healthiness, you should probably bake a batch of her slutty brownies 

Personal Fave : Chicken Noodle Soup

BRITISH LION EGGS

I love eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. Down in my belly. Surprisingly scrumptious recipes using my favourite food item. From making a Lemon Meringue Pie to how long to boil an egg for, all egg angles are covered :) Do I want to say egg one more time...

Personal Fave : Minted Pea and Pancetta Quiche cooorrrrrr

2 THE KITCHEN
I just think this is the best recipe blog idea and makes cooking with your partner much simpler. It also means the fodder is in your belly faster!
Personal Fave : Creme Egg Brownies

TANYA BURR

Not technically a recipe blog but I recently baked her chocolate cookies…and let me tell you…they were pheNOMenal. Nom nom nom. 

Personal Fave : Choc Cookies

MY BAKING ADDICTION
I'm a self confessed sugar addict. Therefore, understandibly I'm addicted to Jamie's dreamy dessert drenched blog.
Personal Fave : Smore's Cookie Cups

Well there you are, my tummy is now rumbling and I have a box of French Fancies in my cupboard so…ya know. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

What are your favourite recipe/baking blogs folks? I need more food porn!

Betty x

An Afternoon Tea Affair

What springs to mind when mentioning a typically tempting, indulgent British afternoon? For me it's spending quality time down in Somerset with my family, treating ourselves to a long overdue catch up whilst stuffing our chops full of clotted cream scones and mini cakelets! (Yes I have just made up the word cakelets…I'm going to roll with that one, I rather enjoy it)

So that is exactly what we did!

And we all know how much I love a girly afternoon tea!

But not just the one afternoon tea this time, no siree! We only went and had two! Not on the same day though - that would have just been plain greedy (!)

Our weekend kicked off with a sunny afternoon strolling around Bath, sipping frothy cappuccinos and window shopping for goodies. Followed by a couple of treatments at The Macdonald Spa Hotel - me a deep tissue massage (bliss) and mum a pedicure for her twinkle toes. 

We sun'd ourselves silly whilst munching finger sarnies, freshly baked warm scones, Bath buns (which were a revelation! Like a mini doughnut bun filled with sugar), mini eclairs topped with blueberries & choccie buttons(!), fruit boats and mini jars of lemon meringue cheesecake.

Actual heaven. 

And yes, that is a chocolate mousse with a base of coco pops, topped with honeycomb and raspberry! Nom nom nom. 

The hotel itself was stunning, covered in blossoming wisteria and set in the most beautiful grounds - within walking distance of Bath city centre but far enough away from the buzz to be in utter peace and tranquility. 

My beautiful mama :)

Safe to say we didn't want to leave. Luckily we had another one to look forward to! Such piglets.

Our second, Sunday afternoon tea took place at the beautiful Mount Somerset Hotel near Taunton. This was a whole family affair as my brother and I bought it for mum & dad as a present way back when. As the sun decided to go into hiding on Sunday, we snuggled into the cosy armchairs,  nearly fell asleep  and supped our various choices of tea leaves whilst gassing and giggling over another mountain of munch! 

Such a civilised and treat-filled weekend! Made even better by the fact that it was spent with my 3 favourite people in the world. And what topped my weekend off with a cherry, was having my other favourite person waiting to greet me when I got back to London! Fresh off the Carousel tour and ready with cuddles :) and blueberry banana bacon pancakes!!!

Do we think I need to diet this week…..perhaps a little.

But then again... :)

Betty x

Salted Chocolate Popcorn Crispy Cakes!

You know that feeling of utter joy when you forget you've made something the night before and open your fridge the morning after… yeah that.

Beaming.

That was my breakfast sorted. Sweet yet salty, chocolatey, sticky marshmallowy yumminess! These babies are the easy peasiest treat to whip up in less than 20 minutes.

And lets face it, who doesn't love the humble rice crispy cake. (If you answered 'me' to said question, we need to have some serious words)

I used to love making rice crispy cakes with my mum and cornflake nests at Easter! If there's chocolate involved…I'm there with bells on. 

I've always been a 'sweet' popcorn lover - strongly opposed to salty popcorn, but by using sweet and salted popcorn with these cakes, it helps to cut through the sweetness and makes them even scrummier me thinks.

What You'll Need //

Rice crispies
1 big bar of dark chocolate
1 bag of sweet'n'salty popcorn
1 tbsp golden syrup
Mini marshmallows
Cupcake cases

Makes approximately 24 cakes

Method

Break up your chocolate into squares and, along with a handful of marshmallows, place in a bowl smaller than your saucepan. Boil the kettle and carefully pour the boiling water into your saucepan until 1/4 full. Do not turn hob on!

Place your bowl of choccie & marshmallows into the boiling water and leave to melt giving the occasional prod & stir.

Into a large mixing bowl pour your melted chocolate, golden syrup and add as much popcorn and rice crispies as you like! Give it all a good stir and keep adding rice crispies until you're happy :)

Place your cupcake cases into a cupcake tray and generously fill with your heavenly choccie mixture. Decorate with a few more marshmallows because…why the hell not and leave to set in the fridge (or don't…I snuck at least 2 before bed time)

Enjoy mi amigos!

Me and my girlyfriends are going for a spa afternoon on Saturday so guess what I'll be supplying them with :)

Also, did you see La Coco Noire's blog post about making my Gooey Banoffee Cookies ?! I was seriously flattered. What a gem.

Betty x

10 Favourites // April Edition

Drip drip drop little April showers…la la la does anyone actually know the rest of the words? Because I don't. Well I've been a busy B this month keeping myself amused whilst William is rehearsing up north. Highlights being- spending quality time with my bezzie who's back from tour, baking to my heart's content and I got a job! <3

Song of the month: Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

Filling my freezer with mint Cornettos during that mini heat wave YUM.

Being cast in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Hay Fever! I'm super excited and will keep you all updated when I start rehearsals in June :)

A FIRST - a lovely fellow blogger La Coco Noire has written a whole post about one of my recipes. I was touched and so happy she loved her Gooey Banana Cookies as much as I loved mine! Thanks Katie <3

The Betty Stamp had its Half birthday! 6 months of blogging and still loving every minute. I feel some sort of celebratory cake recipe coming on...

Attacking my over grown garden. It's like therapy - de weeding, mowing the lawn, now I want to cover it in pretty flower pots & orange trees for the summer and grow a little herb garden.

Being treated to a hair cut, colour and manicure at Gielly Green! I felt very pampered. The hair wash chairs are like beds! And the Essie polish I ended up buying because I loved the colour so much - Maximillion strasse-her.

Being able to be in the same room as my bezzie. Supping on pimms in the sunshine and having a well needed gas. She's never allowed to work abroad ever again. I've put my foot down.

Singing at the Epsom races with The Dukebox Singers and rehearsing in preparation for the Derby & ladies day. Come say hello if you're going!

Easter! Everything about Easter was lovely - up in York with William's family eating ALL of the choccie, ALL of the roast lamb and proper Yorkshire puds :) Also receiving my Lindt bunny from Mandy at One Slice of Lemon blog. What a sweetie.

Yummy brunch at No.32 in Clapham Old Town. If you're a London bunny then you must check it out, complete with twinkly roof terrace which will be glorious in the summer time.


What have been your favourite moments of April lovely people?

For last month's 5 faves have a peak over here :)

Betty x

Gooey Banoffee Cookies

The leaning tower of cookies! I impressed myself with this one, it was even trickier to stack than my millionaire shortbread. These tumbled straight after I'd taken the photo. Maybe I'll make food towers my trademark. Food for thought!

I've just eaten Fruitella for breakfast. That just happened. And I'm probably going to eat these cookies for lunch…weellll it is the weekend, I'm allowed.

So my favourite pudding in the world is a Banoffee Pie - creamy, sticky, banana-ry, chocolatey, biscuity yumminess! All of the bad ingredients - my favourite. Originally I just had a craving to bake a batch of cookies with Dairy Milk caramel in but then I remembered I had bananas needing eating and ALAS the Banoffee Cookie was born!

These are quite moist and cake like cookies with hidden gooey caramel bits mmmm.

What You'll Need //

75g brown sugar

75g unsalted butter

1 egg

Few drops vanilla

Pinch salt

1 ripe banana

175g self raising flour

1 (or 2 if you're feeling naughty) big bar caramel dairy milk 

Makes 12-15 cookies.

What to do //

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (fan)

Cream together your sugar and butter.

Whisk an egg and stir into the mixture along with the vanilla, mushed banana and salt.

Sift in the flour and mix well. Break up a third of your chocolate and stir in.

I mean… hand me a spoon I will just eat that out the bowl.

Grease a couple of baking trays and equally spoon the mixture into spherical blobs (technical term).

Try to space them out quite far from each other as they will spread a little.

Pop a cube of choccie on top of each and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes.

Leave to cool on a baking tray (or don't) before devouring and dunking into a glass of milk.

Here goes….5!

 I'm a towering genius!

Maybe not…

Enjoy your weekends lovely people! Are you baking anything delicious?

Betty x

Ps. Are we friends on Instagram? Pop over and say hi!

The Ultimate Hangover Eggs

Poached, scrambled, boiled with soldiers, omelett-ed, Benedict-ed or sunny side up! I LOVE EGGS. Eggs eggs eggs.

I enjoy mine most of all with a runny yolk spilling down the side of an egg cup with marmite soldiers for dunking :)

mmm nothing better.

As eggs are a proven hangover cure, I've decided to team them with a few more 'morning after'-friendly ingredients to make the ultimate alcohol-busting breakfast cure! And what better way to find egg-inspiration (eggspiration?) than to have a mooch around the British Lion Eggs site - they have some cracking scrambled egg recipes! (see what I did there) :)

I've opted for poached eggs on top of leafy spinach, tomatoes, asparagus and a seedy bagel with a naughty side order of avocado & extra crispy bacon! Because lets face it - you can't possibly not have bacon on a hangover. (Unless you're veggie…respect, I just couldn't resist that bacon smell)

What You'll Need //

Eggs
Spinach
Tomatoes
Asparagus
Bagel
Avocado
Streaky bacon
Salt & pepper
Your sauce of choice


SECRET TO POACHING AN EGG!
No fancy plastic wobbly moulds needed.
I have a fail safe method of poaching my eggs. It works for me everytime.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Stir the water so it has a whirlpool effect - quickly crack your egg into the middle of said whirlpool. Leave it to poach for 2-3 minutes. Scoop out carefully with a holed spoon to get rid of excess water.

Easy.

Method
Boil your asparagus, grill your tomatoes and bacon, slice your avocado, toast your bagel, smother in butter (and marmite in my case - always) sprinkle over your spinach and make a lovely stack of scrummyness for your belly!

Top with your winning egg and watch as the yolk spills down the side … mmm

Wash this down with a glass of coconut water which is marvellous for hangovers or blend yourself one of my delicious fruit smoothie concoctions found on my Instagram

Foods to avoid on a hangover - heavy meats, cheese, orange juice, coffee, alcohol!! and no 'night before' food e.g. cold Chinese, pizza etc. That will not a happy belly make.

Have a cracking brunch one and all, hope the headaches swiftly disappear!

Betty x

P.s. You can find a teapot almost as awesome as mine on Etsy

Spring Caprese Salad with a Lemon Basil Dressing

Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows! La la la. This weather is like a happy drug and with great weather must come great food! This salad is all kinds of zingy, creamy and bursting with sunny flavour.

Perfect for a packed lunch or to throw together for a picnic with pals! (and fruity cider)

I've taken the conventional Caprese Salad and added a few extras to make it even tastier. Did you know it was given this name because it is the colours of the Italian flag? I didn't. Eating and learning :)

What You'll Need //

1 avocado
1 mozzarella ball
Handful baby plum tomatoes
Mixed salad leaves

Basil leaves or dried
1 tsp honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper

Method
Slice your mozzarella, avocado & tomatoes and pile on top of your salad leaves.
For the tangy dressing - If you are using basil leaves then finely chop them. Simply mix together your remaining ingredients and drizzle over your salad.

The world's easy peasiest salad and what a scrumptious summery one it is too.

Enjoy you lovely people!

If you missed it - I'm hosting a giveaway of goodies over here

Betty x