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

Salted Caramel Mini Egg Millionaire Shortbread (!)

Easter is finally here! That means 3 things - my kitchen is a state, I feel sick already from all the sugar I've consumed and I'm seeing William!!!

For me, Easter is being with the family- having Easter egg hunts in the garden with my cousins and a massive roast lamb(!) This year will be slightly different, but boy am I one excited puppy about it. William's moved away with work for 3 months and my parents have jetted off to Thailand…as you do (jealous doesn't even cover it) so William's family have kindly adopted me for the weekend which I'm very happy about and it means I get to see my boy!

Lamb is still in the equation (smiley face) but I thought I'd provide some essential baked treats for afters, or befores, or both!

One glance at these millionaire shortbreads and my tongue is lolling out to one side like the dog in Garfield.

It's going to take a lot of restraint not to devour the entire batch on the train up to York.

What You'll Need //

70g caster sugar
180g plain flour
130g unsalted butter

1 tin condensed milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
60g caster sugar
120g butter
1 tbsp sea salt

Big bar of milk & white choccie
Mini eggs

What to do//

Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a baking dish (mine was approx 16x26cm).

Sift your flour and sugar into a mixing bowl then add the butter.

Mix together to form a soft dough and squash down into baking tray.

Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until light golden.

Whilst the shortbread is baking, into a pan pour the condensed milk, golden syrup, sugar, butter & salt.

On a low heat, stir continuously until a golden caramel colour is reached. This can take some time but be patient and keep stirring!

Leave shortbread to cool for a few minutes and pour over the caramel mmm. DON'T do what I did and lick the caramel spoon…(it still hurts this morning)

Refrigerate until caramel has cooled.

Melt your milk and white choccie separately in two bain maries.

Pour your melted milk chocolate over the caramel, (I didn't learn my lesson and licked the spoon again, this time it was ok!)

Refrigerate for 5 minutes before drizzling over your white chocolate.

Crush your mini eggs and sprinkle over the top et voila! Look how pretty.

Here it goes…the circus millionaire shortbread balancing act of 3…

A double 3…

She only went and did a 4!!! (so tricky with those naughty mini eggs)

Serve these as pudding to make yourself even fuller after Easter lunch! Or why not try my Sticky Hot Cross Bun recipe?

Happy Easter everyone! What are you up to for Easter?

Betty x