Coconut oat biscuits

 

It’s boiling hot and I didn’t want to spend ages baking in the kitchen...but I did want some home baking – obviously.  This is the time for biscuits!  This recipe took under 10 minutes to get into the oven and then only 15 minutes to bake.  Home-made delicious biscuits in under 30 minutes – result!

I love oaty biscuits and the addition of coconut makes them crunchier and flakier; a perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea (I know it’s hot but I cannot forsake my cuppa!).  You’ll notice in the ingredients that you can use either maple syrup or honey in this recipe.  I used maple syrup and it added a strong, almost smoky flavour that I liked, but Mr CC wasn’t sure about.  If you’re not mad about maple syrup definitely opt for the honey instead.

The perfect blend of crunch and chew; these are as close to a hobnob-flapjack hybrid as you’ll probably get!  I was particularly delighted that, after saying I could never get biscuits to spread and bake flat, these did!  Hurray!  Here they are pre-bake:

Here they are post bake:

No blog update from me next week as Mr CC and I are off on a very well deserved (if I say so myself) long weekend away.

Ingredients

75g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons boiling water
75g rolled oats (porridge oats)
75g plain flour
50g desiccated coconut
75g caster sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Line one large, or two smaller, baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil.

In a small saucepan melt the butter and maple syrup together taking care it doesn’t boil.

Remove from the heat.

Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the boiling water until it dissolves.

Stir it into the melted butter – it will bubble up but not terribly, so no need to stand back!

Place the oats, flour, coconut and sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir together.

Stir in the butter mix until you have a warm, shiny dough.

Take heaped teaspoons of the dough and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Use the back of the teaspoon to flatten and shape into discs.

Leave space for the biscuits to spread as they bake.  I got 12 biscuits.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet before transferring to the wire rack – if you transfer them too soon they will be soft and break.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Fat Elvis cupcakes

 

Now these are going to disgust some people because they are topped with candied bacon!  It’s always good to start a baking post with the admission you’ll be disgusting some people...is your mouth watering yet?  Bacon cupcakes were a big thing a couple of years back and I thought it was time I tried one.  Yes, I am about two years behind the curve on most things....never be an early adopter, that’s my motto!

Mr CC cannot even hear me speak of these cupcakes without grimacing.  He can’t get past the bacon.  I’ve tried rationalising it by asking him to ignore the bacon – pick it off if it appals him – and just focus on the banana cupcake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting.  He then admitted he has a problem with banana too.  I’m not going to convert him on this one, I can tell!

Seriously though, the bacon is a gimmick to tie it in to Elvis.  Simply omit it and you have a far more ‘normal’ cupcake.  The cupcake takes its – admittedly rather cruel – name from Elvis Presley’s alleged penchant, late in his life, for peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches.

I loved this cupcake.  The banana sponge is surprisingly light (lighter than say, banana bread) and more banana flavoured than eating a banana.  I know that’s impossible but it tastes so intense.  The cream cheese peanut butter frosting is thick and smooth and one of those things you want to roll around in your mouth because it feels so nice (oh....just me then?)

The bacon.  The bacon is AWESOME!  I went for unsmoked back bacon to stop it being too salty – the peanut butter is salty and I wanted to keep it a balanced, mostly sweet cupcake.  Cooking the bacon in the maple syrup was a special kitchen moment for me – close to spiritual.  The smell!  The look!  The taste!  Sigh.....!  Here are the three stages of the bacon:

I am aware that a lot of food sites are starting to promote Valentine’s baking...and I’ve made Fat Elvis cupcakes.  Perhaps not the most romantic of bakes.  I do have some Valentine’s bakes up my sleeve, but this weekend was more about the food of gluttony rather than the food of love!

Ingredients

For the sponge:

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
2 small/medium ripe bananas, mashed

For the frosting:

180g icing sugar

230g cream cheese, room temperature

115g unsalted butter, room temperature

130g smooth peanut butter

Optional: a handful chopped salted peanuts

For the glazed bacon:

4-6 rashers of bacon, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan oven 160ºC,350°F/ Gas mark 4.

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in the remaining flour and baking powder.

Fold in the mashed bananas.

Spoon into the paper cases and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out cleanly. (They take a little longer than normal sponges because of the large amount of banana – it makes the batter rather wet)

Leave to cool - out of the tin – on a wire rack.

The sponges can be made a day or two in advance if stored in an airtight container.

Now make the frosting:  Sift icing sugar into the mixing bowl.

Add the cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter and beat until smooth.

If the frosting is soft, ten minutes in the fridge will make it the perfect consistency.

Spread or pipe the frosting over the banana cakes and sprinkle with chopped salted peanuts (if using).

Again, the frosting can be made and applied to the cupcakes a day in advance of serving but need to be kept in the fridge because of the cream cheese.

To make the bacon: Start by cutting the bacon into 1.5 inch pieces.

Dry fry the bacon and pour away any fat that comes out.

Add maple syrup and cook until dark brown.  Be patient with this – it takes a while for the liquid of the maple syrup to evaporate and turn into a thick, treacly coating. Don’t rush it!  When it becomes difficult to turn the bacon because it sticks like glue to your spatula...it’s ready!

Leave the glazed bacon to cool – ideally on a non stick surface as it’s pretty sticky!

It can be made a day in advance and kept in the fridge.

Use as a cupcake topper.  I chopped each piece into three, so there wasn’t a huge chunk of bacon on top of the cupcake.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Pecan tart

It’s easy to get stuck in a baking rut and keep making similar things using your favourite ingredients. Every once in a while it’s nice to ask someone else for inspiration – this week I asked Mr CC to pick ingredients for me to use and he chose pecans and maple syrup. So obviously, it had to be pecan tart (nope, I won’t call it pie – sorry!)

I know most people would call this ‘pecan pie’ but I really struggle calling something ‘pie’ when it doesn’t have a pastry lid. It breaches all that is right in this world to misname baked goods in such a way. The Oxford English Dictionary defines pie as “a baked dish of savoury or sweet ingredients encased in or topped with pastry” – note the “encased in” bit – the pastry must seal in the filling. I’m disappointed that the OED allows anything topped with pastry to be called a pie but I’ll leave that battle for another day. So to sum up – this is a TART and not a PIE. Now that that can of worms has been successfully opened I feel a lot better....I’m no psychic but I sense this may lead to some comments....

The pastry interested me in this recipe as it didn’t use egg; normally my short crust pastry always uses egg yolk. It produced a drier, more biscuity pastry which contrasted well with the incredibly rich and sticky filling. The filling sets firm but, while the top sets hard, the inside remains soft and moist.

I served it at room temperature with thick cream but it would also be lovely warm with ice cream.

You’ll notice in my ingredients list I used half golden syrup and half maple syrup – you can easily use all of one if you wish.

Homage to the dawn of computer games...here is a pecan tart pretending to be a pacman:

Ingredients

For the pastry:

200g plain flour
115g unsalted butter, cold
2 tablespoons caster sugar
cold water

For the filling:
70g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g light muscovado sugar
70g golden syrup
70g maple syrup
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
130g pecan nuts, roughly chopped

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the flour and butter in a food processor and blitz until you have breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rub the butter into the flour by hand.

Stir in the sugar and enough water to bring the crumbs to a stiff dough. I pulsed the mix in my food processor and found that 3 ½ tablespoons of cold water was enough.

Form the pastry into a fat disc and wrap in clingfilm, refrigerating for 20 minutes.

Roll the pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm (no extra flour needed) until it is large enough to line a 23cm round loose bottomed tart tin.

Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.

Chill for a further 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

Cover the pastry with baking paper and weigh down with baking beans.

Cook for 10 minutes then remove the paper and beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Put to one side while you make the filling.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

To make the filling place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and maple syrup into a saucepan and gently heat, stirring all the time, until the ingredients have melted and combined.

Remove from the heat and beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Stir in the chopped pecans.

Pour the mixture into the pastry case and make sure the nuts are evenly distributed.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the filling is set. Mine took 35 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack.

Serve either at room temperature with thick cream or warm with ice cream.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.