His results - Banana and Lemon Cake

The cake was good, the frosting was a bit much for me.



I don't know what else to say. Sometimes life's just too much. Do what you can. If you can at least put up the pictures and write a sentence I guess you're not doing too bad.

His Results - Potato Chip Cookies

I really wanted to use Seabrook's crisps for these cookies but I couldn't find ready salted ones in the few shops I checked. I managed to pick up these unsalted ones though and added a couple of hearty pinches of sea salt flakes.

The mixture was really easy to put together. I rolled the balls of dough in sugar and then mushed some smashed up crisps and black sea salt flakes on the top of each.



They looked beautiful like that I thought. I love the texture of the sugar coated exterior. The first batch I cooked pretty much as instructed, checking a little earlier than suggested and they were pretty overdone. The second lot I baked for ten minutes and they were about perfect.

These are really delicious. I gave some to a few friends and they agreed. Don't skimp on the salt!

Recipe 71 - Potato Chip Cookies

I like sweet and salty foods. Both apart and together. Especially together. We've cooked plenty of them and it's time for another: potato chip cookies, recipe from the Smitten Kitchen.

We'll be needing

Cookie
225 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 grams granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans (not for me!)
1/2 cup finely crushed potato chips
250 grams plain flour

Potato chip salt finish (optional)
1 tablespoon crushed potato chips
1 1/2 teaspoons flaked sea salt

His Results - Orange Tea Cake

I wasn't really in the mood for baking today. It's a pretty soothing activity though. I baked at my own speed and finished well ahead of her.

I didn't get any pictures until it came out of the oven. Looked pretty promising.


It tastes nice too. It has a slightly bitter streak because of all the zest I put in. Not all that sweet which is unsuprising given the amount of sugar in the recipe. It's lovely and moist today, hopefully it will be as good tomorrow when I take the majority of it in to work.

His Results - Supernatural Brownies

I have had a really tiring week. I'm worn out and have no energy to write this.


These brownies were a little ray of light though. They really were delicious.


My auntie gave me this pan for my birthday last year. The recipe said to cut off the edge part but that's totally unecessary: the edges were great too and the textural contrast was nice.


I was pleased to have plenty of edge. I can certainly see me making these again.

Recipe 69 - Supernatural Brownies

I've had this in my recipe bookmarks folder for nearly two years now. I'm not sure why I've never made them apart from having a huge stack of bookmarks. This week I couldn't decide which recipe to choose so I asked a friend to think of a number between 1 and 50. He chose 32. The recipe for Supernatural Brownies, posted here on the Brownie Project and adapted from Nick Malgieri was the 32nd bookmark in the folder so away we go!

We'll need:
226g unsalted butter
226g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
200g granulated sugar
180g firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
120g all-purpose flour

His Results - Sweet Revenge's ''Pure'' Cupcakes & Buttercream

We made some batter

Baked it

Then made some frosting
And piled that on top

And it was good!

The texture on these was great when they were fresh but they went a bit hard really quickly. A lot quicker than most cakes. I enjoyed these but I used really nice Madagascan vanilla. Since the taste of it is so prominant I highly recommend you go for the good stuff!

His Results - Mantecados

I made these in this nice new bowl my Auntie got me for my birthday. I've had it a while and used it quite a lot but I don't think I've shown it off before. It has "Let them eat cake" around the side and is a particularly fetching shade of red. I love using big porcelain bowls for baking. Better than plastic or steel for sure.
The dough was slightly different to make than a lot of biscuit mixes but very simple. It came together pretty quickly. For me at least. She is a lot slower than I am. While she was catching up I cooked up a batch of Tuscan white bean soup and made my packed lunch for the next day.

Then they went into the oven and came out looking rather lovely.


I thought these were yummy. Using shortening obviously means they have a great light, crumbly texture. I wish I'd bumped up the anise flavour a little more. The lemon was spot on though. They're very nice!

Recipe 67 - Mantecados

I wanted to bake these before christmas since they are christmassy treats. Unfortunately we were both mega busy and didn't get much baking time. Never mind, we'll make them now. Better late than never as they say.

The recipe is here. We'll be needing:

• 430g vegetable shortening
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 330g granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 shot glasses of anise (or vodka and anise flavouring)
• 1 lemon peel, grated
• juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 900g unbleached white flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg white, beaten for glaze

That's clearly enough to make about a thousand of the things so I'll make half that I think!

His Results - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

It seems like a long time since we baked together and made these cookies. I don't remember every detail of them but I do remember that I put the first batch in for longer than called for and they were really over done.

I also remember that they were rapidly devoured at work when I took them in, despite there being a ton of other stuff available with it being christmas.




They were super easy too. I liked them. As with pretty much any cookie or cake a generous sprinkle of nice sea salt flakes does wonders. As does nice brown sugar!

Recipe 66 - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

It's her turn to choose the recipe this week. She picked this but asked me to put it up here for her. I think she was a little too drunk to be able to see the keys and do it herself.

This recipe is another David Lebovitz one.


We'll need

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150 g granulated sugar
200 g packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
245 g flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
175 g old –fashioned rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking)
240 g raisins

His results - Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is pretty famous I guess. It certainly gets mentioned a lot. Sometimes well regarded recipes like this turn out to be a little bit of a disappointment when you make them yourself. The notoriety seems a little undeserved. Not in this case though.

These were really wonderful cookies. I didn't manage to get a good picture of the finished product sadly. I ate a good proportion of the dough raw and then manage to destroy most of the finished cookes before I took a picture of a baked one. By the time I took this I was down to a single cookie and I wanted to eat it right then. Fancy photography be damned. I wanted a cookie right then.




These are awesome. Bake them now!

Recipe 65 - Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm ill :(

I've not really got to do anything today other than sit around in a blanket feeling sorry for myself. If I'm well enough to bake tomorrow I think cookies are what will be required to put me on the path to health. This is a very well regarded recipe.

We'll need:

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

And ideally a 24 hour chill after making the dough.

His Results - Coconut-Chocolate Patties

These are, as She said, incredibly easy to make.





And they were pretty good too. I didn't put any almond extract in but perhaps I should have done. I think they needed a little something. Perhaps a pinch of salt. They were pretty tasty as they were though!

His Results - Ginger Biscuits

She bought me this awesome saucepan. I have a lot of nice stuff in my kitchen but this may be the nicest. Making the batter was very straightforward. When it came to adding the ginger I decided to forgo measuring and just dumped in a pretty large pile.

I must have added just the perfect amount. More than the recipe called for certainly but the's great since I love ginger.


They turned out really well. A bit chewy, nice and moist and fantastically gingery. I handed some round to a few folk and they were very keen on them. Loads of compliments. I'd certainly recommend the recipe.

Recipe 63 - Ginger Biscuits

You can't go wrong with a ginger recipe can you?

I chose this recipe for ginger biscuits.

We'll be needing:


100g butter
1tbsp golden syrup
2oo g demerera sugar
300 g flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate soda
3tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
1 egg beaten

I'll probably pop a little extra ginger in in some form too.

His Results - Green Apple Cakes

A colleague of mine has an apple tree or two in his garden. He brought some of the bounty in to work for me last year and did so again last week.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to keep the apple peel in one piece when I peel them by hand with a knife. I did pretty well with this lot.

It was dead easy to make this cake. In the recipe it said to put it in a buttered pyrex dish. I'd suggest you line it with baking paper though since mine stuck a little.



This was honestly one of my favourite cakes I've made as part of his little project. It was the texture and moistness that really pushed it over the edge into being extraordinary. The flavour was great too but the super moist, sticky, light texture was knock out. I think I probably put in a lot more apple than the recipe writer intended. I also left it in reasonably big chunks, perhaps a centimeter cubed. That will have helped with the ridiculously fine texture. Try this cake gentle reader!

His Results - Victoria Sponge Cake

Delia was as dependable as ever.



Making a victoria sponge is a little more involved than the all in one sponge recipe I mostly use. It's amazing how much difference the technique makes really because the ingredients are more or less identical.



I sandwiched the layers with seedless raspberry jam and served it with some whipped cream. It was very nice! Not the perfect victoria sponge but a nice one.

Recipe 61 - Victoria Sponge Cake

Once more we turn to football club majority owner, best selling cookery writer and fairly-old-lady Delia Smith. This week she will guide us through the making of a true british classic - victoria sponge cake. I've made it a fair bit in the past but never from this recipe. I'm assuming it's a good one.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/victoria-sponge-cake.html

His Results - Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I did a pretty poor job getting photos this week.

There's even less excuse than normal since I made this twice. This is a great recipe. Super tasty and a doddle to make. I enjoyed it so much that I rustled up another batch on thursday.

I didn't get a photo of the finised, baked cookies for some reason but they were nice. I've just never found a single cookie recipe where I enjoyed the finished article more than the raw dough. Most of both batches never even made it to the oven.